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PAUL KRUGER: 

HIS LIFE STORY. 

BY 

FRED* A. McKENZXE, 

OF ENGLAND. 




PRESIDENT KRUGER IN OFFICIAL DRESS. 



The real kruger 



AND THE 



TRANSVAAL 



THE BRITONS' SIDE 

THE BOERS' SIDE 

THE HISTORICAL FACTS 



COMPILED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES 



iff 



NEW YORK 
STREET & SMITH, Publishers 
238 William Street 



TWO COPIES RECEIVE!: 

UbraiT of CoB~ r *£ 
Office, of ^ % 

1 5 1900 

Agister ef Copy** 



52415 



Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1900 
By Street & Smith 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



SECJtVJ oOPY, 



paul Kruger: fits Life Story, - * - 1 1 
Che Cransvaal Boer Speaking for Himself, 85 
H Brief Rfetory of the Cranavaal Republic, 25 < 



f 



FOREWORD. 



This little biography is not a political pamphlet in jdis- 
guise. Those who want transcripts of State papers, the 
text of conventions, or the like, will have to seek them 
elsewhere. My aim has been to tell the story of Kruger 
the Man, not to write a history of the Transvaal. What 
sort of a man is he ? What are his ideals, his ambitions, 
his methods? What was the condition of things that 
made the autocratic rule of this patriarch so long possible 
at the end of the nineteenth century ? Why his distrust 
of and enmity to England? These questions I have 
endeavored to answer. 

Fair play forbids, and loyalty to England does not re- 
quire, that because Oom Paul is now at war with us I 
should seek to put the worst construction on all his acts, 
or should repeat every scrap of idle gossip against him 
that is floating around Gape Town bar-rooms. 

So far as possible, facts have been obtained at first 
hand from men who participated in the events here de- 
scribed. Free use has been made of the information 
given by contemporary writers. Newspapers, from the 
Cape Town Colonist of seventy-four years ago to the last 
arrivals by mail, have been pressed into service; and in 
the chapters describing the early life of Kruger I have 
been indebted to the many books of South African travel 
issued by missionaries, explorers and others, during the 
first half of this century. 

F. A. M 

October. 1899. 



PREFACE. 



The war that is now being waged in South Africa, be- 
tween the Britons and the Boers, is a subject of far more 
than ordinary interest to Americans, 

The Boers are descendants of the same sturdy Dutch 
stock which is the ancestry of a great number of our 
people, and we are so closely allied to the English by 
the double ties of blood and language that the present 
struggle assumes somewhat the aspect of a family affair 
with us. 

With the divided sympathies which exist among us as 
a people, it is particularly desirable to learn the exact 
situation, and the causes which have led to this unfor- 
tunate war. 

Nearly all published works upon the subject are writ- 
ten with more or less prejudice, as they are mainly the 
writings of Englishmen or Boers, whose sympathies are 
naturally biased in favor of their own nations. 

This w r ork has been carefully arranged with a view to 
placing the facts before American readers in such a man- 
ner as to give the argument on both sides, followed by 
an impartial historical summary. 

The first section of the book, " Paul Kruger: His 
Life Story," is an excellent personal description of the 
characteristics and habits of the remarkable man who is 
at the head of the Transvaal Republic, together with a 
fair presentation of the English side of the case by Mr. 
Fred. A. McKenzie, an Englishman, who writes with 
comparatively little prejudice. 

This is followed by 4 4 The Transvaal Boer Speaking 



\ PREFACE. 



for Himself," which involves a presentation of the other 
side of the story by M. J. Du Plessis, a native of Johan- 
nesburg, and an able defender of his country's cause, 

In the concluding portion of the work, "A Brief His- 
tory of the Transvaal Republic/ ■ the writer has endeav- 
ored to present the actual historical facts so clearly and 
concisely as to enable the reader to obtain a distinct un- 
derstanding of the exact situation. 

There have been wrongs and mistakes upon both sides. 
Which nation is the most to blame for the present war is 
left to the reader to determine. In preparing the book 
many authorities have been consulted to arrive at the 
real facts, and the writer trusts the reader will be satis- 
fied with the result. 

C. T. B. 

December, 1899. 



PAUL KRUGER: 

HIS LIFE STORY. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRESIDENT, PREACHER, AND PATRIARCH, 

Paul Kruger is a primitive man, who, by sheer force 
of commanding personality, has succeeded in life with- 
out any of the aids of modern civilization. If we can 
fancy a patriarch of the days of Abraham planted down 
amongst us, he would find himself less out of touch with 
the ways and manners of our time than is this Boer ruler. 
Brought up from early boyhood, almost wholly out of 
touch with the complex emotions and artificial ways of 
the nineteenth century, he is one in whom the essential 
passions of humanity were allowed free play. He has 
studied life, not from books but from nature, in defend- 
ing himself against savages, in protecting his herds 
against wild beasts. Of city life, he even to-day knows 
almost nothing. Existence in close streets would suffo- 
cate him. His home in Pretoria would be regarded by 
the European as quite rural, and during his seventy-five 
years he has not spent more than a few weeks in large 
centres of population. 

Apart from gunpowder, tobacco and steel, he owes civil- 
ization for little. We rely for our safety on the police- 
man and the soldier ; he long looked for his to his readi- 
ness with his rifle. Our lines of action are fixed for us 



12 President, Preacher and Patriarch. 

by hoary law ; his were, for nearly fifty years, those dic- 
tated by family tradition and personal will. We pride 
ourselves on our complex needs, on our education, on 
our manifold interests in life; his needs are of the 
simplest — a gun, a bag of oatmeal, and a strip of dried 
meat suffice him. Even now, surrounded by men who 
indulge in all the luxuries of life, he still keeps to the 
simplest fare. Of education, in the scholastic sense of 
the term, he has next to none. He can only read his 
Bible slowly, and ordinary writing is practically incom- 
prehensible to him. Books and newspapers, save the one 
Book, are ignored by him ; and the one form of secular 
literature he looks at is State papers. His writing is con- 
fined to signing his own name, and that is an operation 
only performed with difficulty. His language is a patois 
limited to a few hundred words; and, though he under- 
stands English, he never speaks it. 

To-day, as President of the Transvaal Republic, a mill- 
ionaire, and the practical autocrat of a State as large as 
France, he still lives after the manner of a simple 
farmer. Up at five in the morning in summer, and a 
little later in winter, he drinks an early bowl of coffee, 
and then takes his big pipe and goes out on the veranda 
of his house to receive visitors. Men of all kinds come 
to see him. Once he welcomed all; to-day his door is 
shut on most strangers. None can wonder that he has 
tired of receiving curious globe-trotters, who gazed at 
him as at some wild beast, only to come back to Europe 
and write ridiculing his manners and appearance. A 
visitor now has to be introduced by one of the Presi- 
dent's friends; but a burgher, however poor or rough, 
can walk in without ceremony, and discuss the affairs of 
the land with the utmost freedom. It is a sight worth 
going far to look on, the President and a party of 
burghers laughing together, poking each other in the ribs 



President, Preacher and Patriarch, 13 



to emphasize their own wit, and filling the air with their 
tobacco smoke. 

About half-past seven the informal levee ends, and 
Kruger enters his sitting-room for family prayers. A 
brief address accompanies the short passage of Scripture, 
and is followed by a long prayer. After breakfast come 
affairs of State. Though head of a republic, Kruger no 
longer trusts himself unprotected amidst the people. 
Two sentries stand always in front of the gateway to his 
house, and when he leaves home for the Government 
buildings, escorts of armed cavalry precede and follow 
his carriage, bearing with them the Transvaal flag. 
When the Volksraad, or Parliament, is meeting, sittings 
begin at nine in the morning, and Kruger is a constant 
attendant, taking part in all the debates. Four hours of 
political work, varied by frequent adjournments for 
smoking and conversation, bring him to dinner-time. 

He has no merely nominal task in this work of govern- 
ment. Everything centres around him. The Volksraad 
is more or less subordinate to him, and his political in- 
fluence is sufficient to carry everything he wants. Time 
after time great efforts have been made to break his power 
there. Cliques have been formed amongst the members. 
Great sums of money have been spent in bribing repre- 
sentatives to oppose the President. But the end has al- 
ways been the same. If the Raad resists too strongly, 
Kruger simply says that he will resign, and that threat 
is enough to bring all to their senses. For it is an article 
of faith among the rural Boers of to-day that the safety 
of their State is bound up with Paul Kruger. 

He has to see to everything himself. His assistants 
can arrange details, but the final decision, even in the 
most trivial affair, rests wath the Executive Council, 
which means the President. Those who picture him as 
the tool of clever Hollanders hardly know the man. He 



14 President, Preacher and Patriarch. 

uses Hollanders so far as they serve his purpose, but no 
further ; and the moment any one sets himself against 
him, that man is practically wiped out of Transvaal poli- 
tics. Needless to say, all this cannot be done without a 
real knowledge of men. The President knows the best 
way to influence his often obstinate subjects. To one 
he appeals on religious grounds, silencing him with a text 
of Scripture, or the example of an Old Testament 
patriarch ; another he convinces by a harsh and vivid para- 
ble ; a third he laughs down. Friends and foes alike ad- 
mit that he is most obstinate. Once an idea gets into his 
head, it remains there ; and once he has fixed on a pur- 
pose he carries it out, however far round he has to go 
to get to it. He may turn and twist for a time, but his 
end is always the same. He has not, perhaps, the nimble- 
ness of thought on which men of to-day pride themselves ; 
but he is not dependent on the latest visitor for his ideas. 

When the morning's work is done he returns home for 
dinner, to his modest one-storied house. Mrs. Kruger, 
like the good German housewife she is, cares nothing for 
her husband's political affairs, but takes every care to see 
that his clothes are properly aired, and his meals are 
cooked to his liking. His food is of the simplest. He 
has not yet lost the old love for fat mutton, or for such 
homely dishes as "kop en portgis" (sheep's head and trot- 
ters). Coffee is his great drink — coffee first thing in the 
morning, coffee last thing at night. The State allows 
him, besides his salary of £8,000 a year, a further grant 
of £300 for "coffee money/' and rumor says that his good 
wife makes the coffee money meet all the household ex- 
penses. He takes meat three times a day ; chop or steak 
for breakfast, a roast for dinner, and meat of some kind 
for supper; and at dinner time he likes to have plenty 
of vegetables. He drinks no wines or spirits, varying his 
coffee with milk. 



President, Preacher and Patriarch. 15 



After dinner comes a brief nap, and then again to 
affairs of State. It is often about six o'clock before the 
old man can withdraw from routine business, and go 
again out on his veranda with his pipe. Once more visi- 
tors flock in, usually only the more intimate being then 
received. The President's tobacco pouch is passed round, 
and much busines^is done on that stoep. At about seven 
the President again leads in family worship, then comes 
supper, and soon after eight o'clock he is in bed. 

Illness is almost unknown to him, though during the 
past three years he has shown signs of the great strain 
his position involves. But his nerves were hardened by 
many years on the veldt, and he is almost indifferent to 
pain. It is told how once when in Europe, suffering 
from toothache one night at Lisbon, he deliberately 
hacked away at his gum with a pocket-knife until the 
tooth was out. 

In any attempt to estimate President Kruger two 
things must be remembered. First, he is sincerely re- 
ligious ; secondly, his ideas of political morality are not 
those of Europe. None who impartially considers the 
man can doubt the sincerity and strength of his religious 
convictions. They permeate his every action and speech, 
and nothing makes him so indignant as to be charged 
with falseness. The one thing he has never forgiven 
Mr. Chamberlain is the accusation that he did not keep 
his promises. His Bible, as has been said, is his one 
book; once a month he. conducts the service in the little 
"Dopper" church near his home, and he is never so happy 
as when discussing points of doctrine with strangers. 
Although a member of the most extreme Protestant sect 
in the world, he does not carry the doctrines or practices 
of his church to their utmost. For instance, he now dis- 
cards the favorite and orthodox dress of his communion, 
the short jacket and wide-brimmed hat. He does not 



16 President, Preacher and Patriarch. 



insist on the excommunication of all who are not *'Dop- 
pers. M But while willing to look with lenient eye on 
partly orthodox folks, such as Presbyterians, Lutherans 
or members of the regular Dutch Church, he regards 
Jews and Roman Catholics as outside the pale, and no 
Jew or Roman Catholic can participate in any way in the 
government of the Transvaal Republic. 

His ideal is not so much a republic as a theocracy. 
The vision of a kingdom of God on earth, a kind of 
modern reproduction of Palestine under Solomon, haunts 
his dreams. He sincerely regards the Boers as the* 
Chosen People of God, and the great mass of his subjects 
accept the same view. In the days of President Burgers 
he led an attack on that ruler because he had started a 
war "when God was not on our side." He regards the 
victory at Majuba Hill as a direct interposition of Provi- 
dence in favor of his people. ''The nation that fears God 
and obeys Him is the only prosperous nation" is his 
motto. 

But alongside with this sincere piety is a side of his 
character which repels one trained in English morality. 
The Boer in old days could only survive by using his 
wits against the black man. He learnt from the Kaffir 
a subtlety, a power of drawing fine distinctions, a cun- 
ningness, and a way of keeping promises in the letter 
but not in the spirit, which to us seem to ill accord with 
common honesty. "Gunning is accounted amongst the 
Boers the highest proof of talent," wrote a traveler nearly 
seventy years ago. "No people can trick or lie with more 
apparent sincerity, their phlegmatic insensibility to shame 
and external simplicity of demeanor alike contributing to 
their success." To deceive an opponent, as was done 
with the Johannesburgers after the capture of Jameson, 
to tell half truths, to fool, is accounted th^ height of 
strategy, especially when you are dealing with an adver- 



President, Preacher and Patriarch. 17 

sary in whose honor or honesty you as little believe as 
Kruger does in that of the English. 

Nor is his view of political rectitude of a kind that- 
commends itself to Englishmen. He believes in sticking 
to his friends, whatever those friends may have done; 
and if one is too zealous, and plunders a treasury, or 
brutally ill-treats a native, or injures an Englishman, and 
is convicted by a court of law and sentenced to fine or 
imprisonment, the President is almost sure to remit the 
imprisonment or to find a way of making up the fine. 
He does this, not because he sanctions the wrong-doing, 
but because he feels he must loyally stand by his friends. 

Like most Boers, he sees no harm in personal profit out 
of politics. There is little reason to believe that he him- 
self has ever been largely bribed ; and his great wealth 
acquired in recent years can be easily accounted for by 
the increased value of his land. But he sanctions and 
openly defends politicians and members of the Volksraad 
accepting presents from interested parties. He heaps up 
posts and public wealth on his relations in a way that 
would put Tammany Hall to shame. He believes it is 
lawful for the Chosen People to "spoil the Egyptians. " 

In short, President Kruger is not an ideal character 
such as novelists create. He is a strong man, of great 
virtues and great faults, one whose character is singularly 
noble in many ways and sadly deficient in others. In 
remembering the conditions from which he has come, 
one may well wonder that the limitations are not greater. 

He makes an easy subject for ridicule. His uncouth 
appearance, his odd attempts at state and show of dignity, 
his old-fashioned dress, his strange prejudices, are the 
subjects of many a laugh throughout South Africa. He 
was m 1891 asked to be patron of the Queen's Birthday 
Ball. He declined in horror, alleging that a ball was a 
kind of Baal worship, akin to those practices for which 



1 8 President, Preacher and Patriarch. 

the Lord had, through His servant Moses, ordained the 
punishment of death. "As it is therefore contrary to His 
Honor's principles, His Honor cannot consent to the 
misuse of his name in such a connection," his secretary 
wrote. His dress is certainly not made in Bond street or 
Fifth avenue. The baggy trousers, the shiny frock coat 
fastened by the top button, and the old silk hat, strike 
every visitor as ludicrous. Nor are his manners those 
that would pass muster with the Four Hundred. He 
spits freely wherever he is/ and he shares the common 
Boer idea that pocket handkerchiefs are more for orna- 
ment than for use. He does not see the necessity of a 
daily shave, and the stubby beard of four days' growth 
adds no attractiveness to his appearance. 

Yet his sense of humor is in some ways keen. It often 
takes the boyish form of giving his companion a sly dig 
in his side, or coming unexpectedly behind a companion 
and tapping him on the head with anything that is handy. 
It is sometimes hard for the outsider to appreciate this 
humor. A Boer jailer once showed it in its highest form. 
He was flogging a prisoner, and, after laying on twenty- 
five lashes with the cat, demanded that the prisoner should 
say "Thank you" for what he had received. The Kaffir 
refused, whereupon the jailer gave another cut. It is 
true that it requires a special sense to appreciate the fun- 
niness of this. 

Mr. Kruger's humor sometimes takes the form of sly 
verbal digs, especially at his religious opponents. Once 
the Jews presented a petition asking for grants for their 
schools. The old President turned on them with benevo- 
lent gaze. "Why are you so small-minded ?" he asked. 
"I am not. I take your Old Testament and read it, why 
do you not take my New Testament? If you do, you 
will have the same privileges as others. I will lay your 



President, Preacher and Patriarch, 19 

grievances before the Executive Council. Your religion 
is free, but you must obey the law." 

On another occasion he consented to open a Jewish 
Tabernacle. "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I 
declare this building open," he said in a loud voice, so 
that all could hear. 

Yet a third example of his humor. When the members 
of the Johannesburg Reform Committee were released 
from prison, some of them went to thank the President. 
Kruger naturally despised them. "You know," he said, 
"I sometimes have to punish my dogs, and I find that 
there are two kinds of dogs. Some of them who are 
good come back and lick my boots. Others go away and 
snarl at me. I see some are still snarling, but I am glad 
you are not like them." 

"Oh, that was only my joke," he said, when he saw 
that they took the parable ill. 



CHAPTER II. 



FIRST I M PRKSSION S. 

Paul Kruger was born under the British flag, and for 
the first ten years of his life was a British subject. Of 
direct German descent — not Dutch, as is popularly sup- 
posed— he came from the family of one Jacob Kruger. 
who in 1713 arrived in Cape Town a youth of seventeen, 
in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Caspar 
Kruger, a descendant of Jacob, settled down on. a farm 
in Beulhock, near Colesburg; and on October 10th. 1825, 
his son Stephanus Johannes Paulus was born. 

It is said that the impressions one receives in early 
rhildhood remain throughout life: and in the case of 
Paul Kruger, childish impressions were one and all calcu- 
lated to give a hatred of British rule. Cape Colony was 
then at its lowest point. The Dutch farmers, who had 
been hastily transferred to the British Crown, did not 
appreciate the change ; and it must be confessed that the 
actions of the British officials were not calculated to give 
them a very high idea of the value of their new citizen- 
ship. Cape Colony was on the very boundaries of civili- 
zation ; and its white population was so thinly scattered 
that each family had perforce to be an isolated unit, al- 
most wholly out of touch with its neighbors. In former 
years each farmer had been given as much land as he 
could walk across in half an hour, and consequently most 
of the farms were three miles in diameter, their bounda- 
ries marked by heaps of stones, and only a very small 
portion of the land cultivated. 



First Impressions. 



21 



Schools were practically unknown, and it was only with 
the utmost difficulty that the children could be taught to 
read. Young Paul never got beyond being able to trace 
out his name and to spell his Bible. The usual teachers 
were old and discharged soldiers, who were taken on the 
farms because they were fit for nothing else, and who, 
as the farmers used laughingly to remark : "Must be fit to 
teach because they could do no other thing/' It will be 
remembered how when M. Stoubert was appointed to the 
cure of Ban de la Roche., he asked to be taken to the chief 
school, and w r as shown a miserable hovel where a number 
of children were crowded together- — noisy, w r ild, and 
making no attempt to learn. A little, withered old man 
was lying on a bed in the corner. Stoubert went up to 
him. "Are you the schoolmaster, my good friend ?" 
"Yes, sir." "And what do you teach the children?" 
"Nothing, sir/' "Nothing! how is that?" "Because," 
replied the old man simply, "I myself know nothing." 
"Why, then, were ybu appointed schoolmaster?" "Why, 
sir, I had been taking care of the Waldbach pigs for a 
great number of years, and when I got too old and in- 
firm for that, they sent me here to take care of the chil- 
dren." 

The same system applied in Cape Colony. All of young 
Kruger's book learning was obtained from a "meister" 
such as this, and from an old Boer woman. 

It is difficult for us to now realize that in his childhood 
Kruger was brought up amidst the slave population. 
Around the farm would be, as on every farm, a number 
of blacks, whose future was wholly in his father's hands. 
If his parents took him into the town on a market day 
he could see in the central square slaves being publicly 
flogged for theft and other petty offenses ; and his eye 



22 



First Impressions, 



could hardly avoid gazing on placards with announce- 
ments like this: 

A SLAVE WOMAN AND HER FOUR CHILDREN. 

At Messrs. JONES & COOK'S sale on Saturday morn- 
ing will be sold the slaves named as below stated : 

AMDOCA, a female, 28 years old, housemaid. 

MUGTILDA, a female, 14 years old, housemaid. 

TITUS, a boy, 10 years old, apprenticed to a tailor. 

JOHN, five years old. 

AUGUST, one year and three months old. 

The two latter will be sold with their mother. 

A credit of six months, with interest from day of sale, 
will be given upon approved security. 

Wolff & Bartman, 
Auctioneers. 

The colony was at least ten weeks' distance from Eng- 
land, and no news could reach it from Europe until 
months after the event. Books were scarce, newspapers 
few, small and dear. There had been a museum, but it 
was closed for want of support ; and the public library 
consisted of a stock of almost useless volumes, mainly 
old divinity. One of the amusements of the people of 
Cape Town was visiting the convict ships that called on 
their way to Van Diemen's Land. 

All the colonists were most desperately poor, and the 
dollar, nominally worth four shillings, only realized 
eighteen pence. Civil servants were often months behind 
with their salaries. Credit was universal, and there was 
hardly a farm in the colony which was not mortgaged. 

The white men, divided in the two great cliques of 
the English administrators and the Dutch farmers, lived 
in almost hourly peril of their lives. On the farms it 



First Impressions. 



^3 



was necessary to be continually armed ; and long before 
the boy Kruger was strong enough to hold a musket he 
could use a bow and arrow with considerable skill, help- 
ing with them to drive off the wild animals attacking his 
father's cattle. The farmers were threatened with two 
great perils. The Kaffirs and Bushmen were continually 
leaving their borders and killing whatever whites they 
could find. The 36,000 slaves in the colony were never to 
be relied on. The white man held his own only by his 
skill with his rifle and his readiness in wielding the sjam- 
bok. The farmers were — most of them— in the worst 
straits, especially those on the frontiers. A local journal 
in 1835 described them as ' 'miserably deficient in cloth- 
ing, in furniture, in culinary utensils, in apartments — 
half a dozen people often sleeping in the same room, with- 
out instruction, destitute of books. " They lived in the 
simplest fashion, making almost everything for them- 
selves that they required, lacking what are now consid- 
ered the most elementary requirements of civilization or 
of common decency. They mostly slept in the same 
clothes as they worked in, often not changing their attire 
for weeks altogether. In some parts there almost seemed 
a danger of their sinking to the depths of the ignorance 
and superstition of the Hottentots. From this they were 
only saved by two things — their passionate love of liberty 
and their zeal for religion. 

In the Kruger household religion was regarded as the 
main affair of life. The father was a member of the 
narrowest section of the Dutch Church in South Africa, 
afterwards known as Doppers. It is difficult for an out- 
sider to understand the real differences between the Dop- 
pers and the Established Church. The principal one was 
that the Doppers would sing only psalms in their worship, 
objecting to "man-made" hymns on the ground that they 
were "carnal." They further believed it was not right to 



24 



First Impressions. 



follow changes of fashion in personal dress, and they 
could be distinguished by their large vests buttoned up 
to the chin, their short jackets and wide-brimmed hats. 
But the Dopper spirit went beknv that. To be a Dopper 
meant to object to change of any sort in any way, to 
resist every reform, good or evil, simply because it w T as 
a reform, to be imbued with a spirit of Toryism, such as 
to the people of Europe would seem incomprehensible 
and incredible. 

The Krugers and all the Dutch farmers had not taken 
kindly to English rule. They had many grievances. Our 
Government would not permit them to fight the native 
tribes with the same severity as formerly. They blamed 
us for the depreciation of the coinage. They said they 
had been ill-treated by England withdrawing her prefer- 
ential tariff on Cape wanes. Then came the final blow. 
In 1833 and 1834, England ordered the emancipation 
of the slaves. Compensation was allowed to the owners, 
but the regulations and restrictions were such that very 
few of the farmers received the money the English Par- 
liament had granted them. The Cape Colony was flooded 
with a number of idle wanderers hanging around every 
farm, refusing to work, making the country unsafe. The 
emancipation of the slaves alone would not have turned 
the Dutch farmers from us, but that, coming on the top 
of many other grievances, made the burden intolerable. 
"We white African farmers,'* they said, "cannot live with 
any feeling of security in a country with so many black 
tribes under Her Majesty's Government. We have been 
oppressed under British rule, which oppressions we can- 
not even name, for these no newspaper could contain : 
they would certainly fill a large volume." Many had 
already by ones and twos made the plunge into the great 
unknown country to the north. It was now determined to 
do this on a large scale. Under the leadership of Pot- 



First Impressions. 



25 



gieter, a great army of farmers abandoned their homes, 
piled their belongings in big ox-wagons, and trekked to 
the far interior. They had strange visions, these wan- 
derers — not only were they escaping from British rule, 
but they hoped to penetrate through the wild country 
right into Palestine, the land which was rightly theirs as 
the chosen people of the Lord. Among these wanderers 
Caspar Kruger held a prominent place ; and young Paul 
Kruger, then ten years old, marched at the head of an 
ox-wagon going due north. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE MAKING OF THE MAN. 

In South Africa the drift of civilization is ever not 
westward but northward. The Vortreekers were, as they 
knew, taking their lives in their hands in thus plunging 
into the wilderness; but the spirit of the wanderer was 
in their veins; and most of them were never so happy 
as when, w r ith all their household goods in an ox-wagon, 
they roamed the land, surrounded by their flocks and 
herds, 

Caspar Kruger was comparatively a rich man, and pos- 
sessed numerous flocks ; so he did not go in the forefront 
of the expedition, and did not seek for adventures. For 
some time he remained near the Caledon River, and in 
1837 he went to Natal. 

Young Paul, with flint-lock over his shoulder and whip 
in hand, was ever busy defending his father's flocks. He 
was, as all the stories of that time go to show, a high- 
spirited, bright lad, capable of doing almost anything in 
the saddle or with his rifle. Tradition says that when 
only eight years old he once defended himself and a little 
girl from an attack by a wild beast with a jack-knife 
alone. He could ride as well bare-backed as in the saddle. 
When galloping at full speed, pursued by some angry 
buffalo, he could turn round, detach his rifle, fire at and 
hit in the centre of the head his pursuer. It was a 
life which none but the hardiest could survive. Battle 
and death were the subjects of hourly talk. He had to 
be ever on the qui vive to save his father's flocks from 
wild beasts; and even before he reached his teens his 



The Making of the Man. 



27 



adventures as a lion-killer were sufficient to throw those 
of some famous modern travelers in the shade. He sel- 
dom talks about those old days now, and he takes the 
adventures of that time so much as a matter of course 
that he does not think them worth mentioning. "When 
I was a child/' he says, "I had to look after the sheep 
and the cattle of my father. In those days I killed such 
a great number of lions, elephants, buffaloes, and rhi- 
noceroses, that it is impossible for me to say the exact 
number I shot. I had to keep them away from the cattle, 
and I succeeded in doing so." 

His father was a famous hunter, and set the boy an 
example — if example were needed — of coolness of nerve 
and steadiness of aim. An old traveler, long since dead, 
told the following story : 

"The father of young Kruger," said he, "was celebra- 
ted in this part of the country for his exploits in lion- 
hunting with his son. The latter came unexpectedly on 
a lion and fired, but missed his aim, w r hen the animal 
rushed fiercely upon him. The father, who witnessed 
from a distance what had occurred, with all that coolness 
and confidence which those only who are accustomed to 
such encounters can command, came to his son's assist- 
ance. Approaching within a few yards of where the lion 
lay growling over its victim, whom it seemed to press 
closer to the earth as if fearful of losing its prey, he 
leveled his piece and fired. The ball passed through the 
animal's head, when it rolled over and, after a few strug- 
gles, expired near the body of the young man, who, to the 
inexpressible joy of his parent, had sustained no serious 
injury. On my remarking that it was a surprising deliv- 
erance, 'Yes,' he replied emphatically, 'God was there/ 99 

The invading Boers had time after time to fight the 
native tribes. Paul was at Vechtkop (Battle Hill) when 
the great host of Matabele tried to storm the Boer laager, 



28 



The Making of the Man. 



Half a hundred wagons were lashed together in a circle, 
the interstices being filled with bushes. Behind the 
bushes stood the Boer men and boys, ready to sell their 
lives dearly, and on rushed five thousand Matabele war- 
riors, flinging their clouds of assegais into the laager, and 
seeking to storm the position. The host surged forward 
till the bloodshot gleam of their dull eyes could be seen 
by the defenders, and till the hot breath of their mouths 
could be almost felt. They rent the air with their war 
cries. Steadily the Boers poured their fire into the black- 
bodies ; and amongst the defenders was young Paul, then 
only a boy of eleven, but doing his part in front like any 
man. Lads have to develop early on the veldt. At last 
the Matabeles were driven off, but not before they had 
stolen the strangers' cattle. That night in the Boer camp 
were prayers and hymns of thanks to God for their vic- 
tory. 

In 1837 an event happened which could not but im- 
press itself on the imagination of the lad. The Boers 
had spread themselves over one part of Natal, and were 
anxious to secure from Dingaan, the Zulu leader, a treaty 
giving them legal rights to the land. Piet Retief, the 
leader, attended by an imposing party of Boers, made a 
state visit to Dingaan's kraal, bearing many presents. 
Dingaan received them in a most friendly way, and had 
all manner of festivities in their honor. A treaty was 
drawn up ceding the land to the Boers, and was signed 
by the king and his chiefs. Then Dingaan invited Retief 
and his followers to lay their arms on one side, and, as a 
final sign of confidence, to share unarmed in a drink of 
peace. Not suspecting treachery, they did so, and while 
the cup was in their hands Dingaan's warriors filing 
themselves on them, assegaied every man, and hacked av» 1 
multilated the bodies. Then the Zulus, intoxicated w : :Ui 
their success, made expeditions to the outlying fan - 



THe Making of the Man. 



29 



and slew hundreds of the Boers. A small party of farm- 
ers got together, formed their wagons into a laager, and 
prepared to sell their lives dearly. The girls and women 
loaded the muskets, or themselves took part in the shoot- 
ing; and for three hours the righting steadily continued, 
till at last a party of Boers finally routed the Zulu impi 
by an unexpected charge. 

It was a strange school for the boy— a school where 
one learns self-control, self-confidence, watchfulness,' and 
foresight : but where the virtues of tenderness and pity 
have perforce to go to the wall. The Boer* had to shoot 
or be shot. He then was the Uitlander, and as an Uit- 
lander had to be prepared to defend his invasion by 
straight shooting. This was by no means the only time 
that Paul stood in laager resisting the savage attacks. 

In 1838 the Krugers moved up to the Mooi River, and 
in 1842 they finally settled in the beautiful and fertile 
district of Rustenburg. For nearly seven years they had 
no settled home ; and of the many stories of Kruger which 
have come down since that time, and which are now 
repeated each night on a hundred Boer stoeps, perhaps 
the favorite is of how he lost his thumb. He was out 
hunting, and, being anxious to shoot a rhinoceros, he 
crammed an extra charge of powder down his muzzle 
and fired. The gun burst, shattering the top joint of his 
left thumb. He was far from possible help, so, with the 
usual rough surgery of the veldt, he bound up his thumb 
and made for home. But soon the thumb began fester- 
ing and threatened to mortify. The lad knew well that 
this meant death, so, without hesitation, he took out his 
pocket-knife and cut off the top joint of the thumb. Even 
this was of no avail, for the mortification had spread too 
low. Again Kruger took out his knife, and cut off the 
thumb by the second joint, when, happily, the wound 
healed. 



3° 



The Making of the Man. 



He was specially noted for his skill as a runner, and 
was reputed to be able to run as fast as^a horse. Once 
he actually had a race with a man on horseback over a 
course about eight hundred yards long, and he won. An- 
other time he had a foot race against picked Kaffir cham- 
pions, the stake being a number of cattle. Mr. Poultney 
Bigelow, who had the story from Kruger himself, thus 
relates it in his book, "White Man's Africa" : 

"It was a long, hilly, difficult run across country, past 
certain well-known landmarks, among others his father's 
house. Young Kruger soon distanced all his pursuers, 
and when he reached his father's house he was so far 
ahead that he went in and had some coffee. His father, 
however, was so angry with him for running across coun- 
try without his rifle that he very nearly gave his son a 
flogging. But he made the boy take a light rifle with 
him when he left to finish his race. 

"On sped young Kruger, the Kaffir braves toiling after 
him as well' as they could. They threw away their im- 
pediments as their muscles weakened; their path became' 
strewn with shields, spears, clubs, and even the bangles 
they wore on their legs and arms. But, in spite of it all, 
Paul Kruger kept far ahead of them all ; and as the day 
waned he found himself so completely master of the situ- 
ation that he commenced to look about for an antelope 
which he might bring into camp by way of replenishing 
the larder. He saw through the tall grass a patch of color 
which made him think that it belonged to a buck taking 
its ease. He aimed and pulled the trigger, but the gun 
missed fire; instead of an antelope there bounded up a 
huge lion, which had been disturbed by the sound. The 
two faced each other, the lion glaring at Kruger and he 
returning that glare by the steady gaze of his fearless 
eyes. The lion retreated a few steps, and Kruger made 
as many steps forward; then Kruger commenced slowly 



The Making of the Man. 31 

taking one step backward, followed by a second and then 
a third. But the lion followed every move of Kruger, 
keeping always the same distance. This work was get- 
ting very weary, not to say dangerous, particularly so as 
darkness was coming on and no sign of relief. Slowly 
and cautiously Kruger prepared his musket for a second 
shot. He raised, aimed, and pulled the trigger, but again 
there was only the snap of the cap ; and Kruger was face 
to face with a lion and with no weapon but the stock of a 
useless rifle. The last snap of the lock had so infuriated 
the wild beast that he made a spring into the air and 
landed close to Kruger's feet — so close, indeed, that the 
earth was thrown up into his face, and he expected to be 
in the animal's grasp. He raised his gun to deal the ani- 
mal a blow ; but at this the lion retreated, glancing sul- 
lenly over his shoulder until he was about fifty yards 
away; then, as though by a sudden impulse, the beast 
broke into a furious gallop and disappeared over the next 
hill. 

"Kruger joyfully resumed the race, and, in spite of all 
that happened, easily carried off the prize from the Kaffir 
chiefs." 

His strength was as the strength of ten men. At one 
time, according to the official historian of the Transvaal, 
he seized a buffalo by the horns and forced the head 
under the water until he drowned it. However much tra- 
dition may have magnified some of these tales, there 
can be no question but that Paul Kruger was a very king 
among hunters and a giant amongst men. 



CHAPTER IV. 



FARMER AND FIGHTER. 

The ideal of the Boers in the Transvaal was to sever 
themselves absolutely from every other white nation. 
They wanted to be a solitary people, having no inter- 
course with the outside world, and with little or no gov- 
ernment. They had the strongest possible objection to 
paying taxes, and they thought that if there were no gov- 
ernment there would be no taxation. Every farmer was 
to rule his own estate as he pleased, none interfering with 
him. This ideal was found impossible, owing to the neces- 
sity of organization for defense against the blacks. There 
had to be some form of government, but laws were 
passed forbidding any Englishman or German to own 
land in the Republic, vetoing the raising and working of 
minerals, and laying heavy penalties on those who tried 
to open a road to other countries ; in short, the policy 
which has been carried on, so far as possible, ever since. 

The Krugers settled at Rustenburg, and throve greatly 
there: sheltered, well- watered and fertile, the place 
proved an ideal settlement. A house was built after the 
usual manner of the Boer farms, with a sitting-room in 
front, a kitchen behind, and as many bed-rooms as were 
required built around, a great veranda being in front of 
all. The family need only ride out to get any required 
quantity of game, from deer and buffaloes to giraffes, an- 
telopes, and even elephants. 

Even in that scattered and suspicious community Paul 
soon became a man of mark. When he was only twenty- 
three years old he was appointed Assistant Field Cornet, 



Farmer and Fighter. 



33 



an office giving him certain magisterial rights in times of 
peace, and a command of a company in war time. As 
the Assistant Field Cornet is elected by those under him, 
this is a very good test of standing. A year afterward 
Kruger was made Field Cornet, a post he held for five 
years, then being again promoted to the office of Com- 
mandant. It was While Field Cornet that he took part in 
the expedition against Sechele and the attack on Dr. 
Livingstone, which is dealt with later. Fie had one very 
narrow escape, "I was," he said, when telling the story 
himself, ''surrounded by blacks, and, as I wore a black 
coat, my own people took me for a nigger. When I 
tried to make my way through the enemy they discharged 
a cannon, and the shot struck so near my head that I was 
half deafened with the noise, yet I made my escape." 

After the manner of young Boers, Kruger early set 
up a home for himself, and, as a preliminary, found a 
wife. His choice fell on a Miss Du Plessis. Picture him 
as he went courting. For once he took some care of his 
personal appearance, and made more than wonted use of 
cold water. He attired himself in his best and bravest 
costume, a showy handkerchief forming a prominent 
part of his equipment. Then he mounted his best horse 
and rode off to his lady-love. As he approached her 
house he went up with a showy gallop to reveal the points 
of his steed, jumped off, and swaggered in with all the 
confidence which only a young Boer can show at such 
a time. Of course they knew what he had come for, 
and asked him to stay and sup. After supper the family 
disappeared, leaving the young couple alone in the sit- 
ting-room. Then came the great ceremony of sitting up 
—a ceremony known in no other land. The candles were 
fixed, and so long as these candles burnt the two young- 
people sat together. Probably the lady had taken care 
to have them made of special length and thickness before- 



34 



Farmer and Fighter. 



hand. Hour after hour passed on, the young Boer, 
usually early to bed, finding it hard to drive off the 
sleepiness almost overpowering him. But to go away 
before the candles had reached the very bottom would 
have show y n a strange lack of love, and would have been 
accounted little short of an insult to his sweetheart. 
What did the two find to talk about in all those long 
hours? Doubtless they recounted their hate of British 
rule. But it is hardly likely that, in all their schemes for 
the future, young Paul thought of a life such as was to 
await him. 

The country was torn by dissensions. The Boers had 
their own way. They were independent ; none could con- 
trol them. Few civilized white men penetrated near them. 
They hated and persecuted all missionaries near by until 
they made their lives unbearable. Now, for want of 
something better to do, they started quarreling among 
themselves. Religion and politics, as is usually the case, 
made two great subjects of difference between them. 
Should a religious man wear a broad hat or a narrow 
one? Should a real Christian w r ear a short jacket or a 
long jacket? Should the cloth used in the Communion 
of the Lord's Supper be the same as the cloth used in 
the ordinary service of the Church? Should hymns be 
sung, or only psalms? Was it necessary for a religious 
man to have his waistcoat buttoned right up to his throat? 
Should the authority of the Cape Town ,°>ynod be recog- 
nized across the Vaal? These are not imaginary ques- 
tions ; they aie the points over which the Boers argued 
and quarreled and fought for many years — questions 
which turned neighbors into enemies and split the coun- 
try in parts. 

Then came the trouble about the political constitution 
of the country. It is impossible to keep account of the 
numerous governments that were in existence at the same 



Farmer and Fighter. 



35 



time — sometimes there were two, sometimes there were 
three, sometimes a scheme was proposed for uniting all 
in one. Kruger himself was a leading reformer. In 
1844 the Volksraad at Potchefstroom had drawn up a 
code of thirty-three articles as the Constitution of the 
Republic. In 1857, when affairs were somewhat settling 
down, Pretorius, son of the famous Boer leader, felt that 
the constitution wanted changing ; and amongst his most 
active supporters was Paul Kruger. They wanted an 
independent church, free from the Synod of Cape Town, 
and they also wanted to have the government more in 
their own hands. Lydenburg, the home of the earliest 
inhabitants, domineered over the remainder of the coun- 
try, as Pretoria in later times domineered over Johannes- 
burg, only at this time Kruger did not happen to be on 
the side of the domineers. An agitation was started 
throughout the Republic, and Pretorius and Kruger held 
meetings everywhere, demanding reform. A new repre- 
sentative assembly was elected to frame a constitution, 
which it did, decreeing that in future all the people in 
the State, of European origin, should elect a Volksraad, 
and not one section of them only, as before. The older 
parts of the country, which had up to then held supreme 
power, denounced the new constitution, and declared 
they would have nothing to do with it. Thereupon Pre- 
torius declared them rebellious, and the ultimate result 
was that two republics were constituted, the people at 
Lydenburg demanding their independence. Pretorius 
believed that by an armed raid he could bring both the 
Free State and Lydenburg to his side; and among his 
men in this "J ameson Raid" was Commandant Paul 
Kruger. The Pretorius and Kruger party were over- 
powered and a treaty of peace arrived at. But many 
of their friends in the Free State were brought to trial 
for high treason and one was sentenced to death, his 



36 



Farmer and Fighter. 



sentence, however, being remitted to a very small fine. 
In the end, in i860, the whole of the Transvaal was once 
more united. 

But for some years the country had been in a tumult, 
and it is wonderful how long the war was kept on for 
such little bloodshed. The true explanation is probably 
found in the humorous remark of the missionary, Moffat, 
that the opposing armies were always very careful to keep 
a long distance from each other. 

Fighting and farming did not shut out everything else 
from Kruger's life. Like all his countrymen, he was, 
and still is, devoted to his own home. His first wife died, 
and he married her cousin ; and it is said that his children 
and grandchildren and great-grandchildren now number 
over two hundred. 

In his early manhood he passed through a deep re- 
ligious crisis. The hymns and prayers of the senior 
Voortrekkers, and the good example of his own parents, 
had always impelled him to religion ; but it was not till 
after his marriage that he found the old evangelical 
truths of Christianity lay deep hold on him. Then the 
preaching of an American missionary, Mr. Lindley, 
fixed on his conscience the conviction of sin. Over- 
whelmed, he could not rest. Forsaking home, he w 7 ent 
out on the veldt, and for days remained away. A search 
party went out for him, and at last found him, starved, 
parched, but thinking nothing of meat or drink in the 
realization of the forgiveness of sins. 

This experience has tinged the whole of the remainder 
of his life, and for some time he wanted to devote him- 
self to preaching the Gospel. His theology is of the 
Puritanic type, based more on the Old Testament than 
the New, but, nevertheless, altogether genuine. Those 
who regard him as a mere snivelling Pecksniff have alto- 
gether misunderstood the man. 



CHAPTER V 



KRUGER AND THE BLACK MEN. 

To the English mind there is no part of Kruger's 
life less attractive than his dealings with the native tribes. 
Let us, for a moment, try to put ourselves in his place. 
The Boers in the Transvaal were surrounded on every 
side save one by strong, well-armed troops of natives, 
who outnumbered them a hundred to one, who constantly 
raided their farms, carried off their cattle, and murdered 
and mutilated any defenseless white man they could find. 
In the Free State the white men fought and defeated the 
leading tribe of their opponents, and then made peace 
with the others ; but the Transvaalers were not powerful 
enough to do this. 

It would be unfair to say that all the fault was on the 
side of the blacks. The Boers regarded men of color as 
the Caananites, whom they, the people of Israel, were 
justified in oppressing in every way. They did not be- 
lieve that a Kaffir possessed a soul : and even to this day 
few things make Kruger more angry than for any one 
to assert that the black men are in any way the spiritual 
equals of the white. "They are not men," he will ex- 
claim indignantly,. "they are mere creatures. They have 
no more soul than a monkey has." 

It will be remembered that when Moffat, the mission- 
ary, was traveling through Boer territory, he one night 
stopped at a Boer farm. He was hospitably entertained, 
and asked to conduct family worship. He turned to the 
farmer and asked where the servants were : "Why do not 



38 Xruger and the Black Men. 



the Hottentots come in to worship ?" The farmer turned 
on him indignantly. "Hottentots ! Do you mean that, 
then? Go to the mountains and call the baboons if you 
want a congregation of that sort— or stop : I have it : 
my sons, call the dogs that lie in front of the door; they 
will do!" 

Some of the friends of the Boers protest indignantly 
to-day against the assertion that the abolition of slavery 
had anything to do with their leaving Cape Colony. The 
best answer to this is found in the fact that when they 
settled in the Transvaal they revived slavery in its most 
odious forms. They raided peaceful native tribes time 
after time, shot down the unarmed black men,, and car- 
ried off their women and children as slaves. They at- 
tacked missionaries who endeavored to protect the 
natives ; and, when the missionaries made representations 
to their governments, the Boers attempted, by all man- 
ner of slanders, to ruin their characters. How far these 
slanders were true may be best judged by the fact that 
Dr. Livingstone was one who was attacked most bitterly 
by them. Livingstone in his "Modern Travels" repeat- 
edly tells of the cruelties of the Boers, and of their en- 
deavors to exclude missionaries from their country. One 
or two quotations will tell his story : 

"The Boers, four hundred in number, were sent by 
Mr. Pretorius to attack the Bakwains. . . . Be- 
sides killing a number of adults, they carried off two 
hundred of our school-children into slavery. 
I can declare most positively that, except in the way of 
refusing to throw obstacles in the way of English teach- 
ers, Sechele never offended the Boers by word or deed. 
They* wished to divert the trade into their own hands. 
They also plundered my house and property; smashed 
all the bottles containing medicines ; tore all the books of 
my library; and carried off or destroyed a large amount 



Kruger and the Black Men, 39 



of property belonging to English gentlemen and 
traders. Of the women and children captured many of 
the former will escape; but the latter are reduced to a 
state of hopeless slavery. They are sold and bought as 
slaves ; and I have myself seen and conversed with such, 
taken from their tribes and living as slaves in the houses 
of the Boers." Kruger was one who took part in this 
attack. 

Pretorius, it is true, issued a declaration against slav- 
ery, but it was a mere dead letter, intended solely to im- 
press the outside world, for at the moment of issuing 
it Pretorius himself was a slave owner. And when the 
pressure of outside opinion became too great for even 
the Boers to permit slavery, they established a system of 
imboking or apprenticing the children of the natives, 
which was only slavery under a very thin disguise. 

Kruger himself had no weak sentimentalism about the 
rights of the natives. When his cattle ran short he took 
the blacks and harnessed them to the plough, and sjam- 
bok in hand, compelled them to work. You can still find 
natives in the Transvaal who, with half pride, will show 
their scarred backs with the marks of the sjambok got 
from the President's hands when they were serving as 
his oxen. 

Yet another instance, which, more vividly than any de- 
scription, shows the state of affairs existing between the 
blacks and the Boers. In 1854, Potgieter, a Boer, who 
was noted for his high-handed way of dealing with the 
natives, set out on a hunting expedition. It is said that 
he had stolen large numbers of children from a neigh- 
boring tribe. Under the chief Makaban the tribe rose, 
as Potgieter was passing by, and murdered him and his 
party in a most barbarous fashion, skinning him while 
he was alive, and treating his companions— men, women 
and children — almost as badly. 



4° 



Kruger and the Black Men. 



The news of the massacre sent a thrill through the 
white inhabitants of the Transvaal, and Pretorius, the 
fioer leader, determined to avenge it. He and a nephew 
of the murdered Potgieter gathered together an army of 
five hundred men, and proceeded to attack Makaban and 
his. tribe, Paul Kruger was one of the commandants of 
the Boer forces. The Kaffirs, hearing of the approach 
of the white men, retreated to some subterranean caverns 
of vast extent. Pretorious held a council of war, and 
decided to blast the rocks above the caverns, and thus 
crush and. bury the savages alive under the ruins. This 
plan was attempted, but proved unfeasible, so the caves 
were then surrounded and rigorously watched day and 
night to prevent the wretches within escaping, or any 
outside coming to their relief. Fences and barriers were 
built around the rocks, and great loads of timber and 
stone piled into the openings of the caverns. The men. 
women and children had no water, and soon an intolera- 
ble thirst drove them out. The women and children, we 
are told, died after they had drunk a little water : but 
whether they died from Boer bullets or not is by no 
means clear. It is certain., however, that every Kaffir 
man who showed himself at the cavern's mouth was 
promptly shot down. For three weeks this unequal siege 
lasted, and then the Boers forced their way in. only to 
be driven back by the horrible smell of the reeking 
corpses. No less than nine hundred Kaffirs were shot 
down at the entrance of the cave; and how many more 
died in agonies of thirst within will never be known. 
This incident, though the most prominent in the story 
of the Boer dealings with the blacks, stands by no means 
alone. 

At this siege the nephew of the Potgieter who was 
murdered acted as Assistant Commander-in-Chief. One 
day he was standing on the upper side of the entrance 



Kruger and the Black Men. 41 



to the cavern making observations, when a shot pierced 
his neck, and he fell down dead inside. Kruger was 
close by, and without hesitation he rushed in the cave 
amidst a shower of bullets and brought the corpse safely 
back. 

It would be wearisome to tell of the campaigns Kruger 
led or took part in against the natives. He himself puts 
the number at about fifteen. He had innumerable nar- 
row escapes. His clothes were often pierced by bullets 
or assegais, but he seemed to have a charmed life, and 
was never once even wounded. 

A writer in the New Age recently told from personal 
knowledge a story of Kruger's dealings with the natives 
which is worth quoting: 

"On one occasion, in 1869, an event occurred which 
might have altered altogether the history of the Trans- 
vaal. Kruger, finding his ordinary hands insufficient to 
gather in his harvest, which w r as exceptionally heavy, 
rode over to a town of the Bakhatla, under the chief 
Khamanyani, and peremptorily ordered the chief to send 
him a number of laborers. Khamanyani expressed regret 
at being unable to do so, giving as his reason that his 
people were all harvesting, and if they had to cease work 
to harvest Baas Kruger's crops, their own would be 
spoilt. Kruger in rage, jumped off his horse, and with 
his sjambok lashed at the chief furiously. Several of 
the native witnesses rushed with uplifted sticks to kill 
the white man w 7 rft> had thus assaulted their chief in his 
own council yard, but Khamanyani, smarting as he w r as 
from the blows received, restrained them. That night 
the whole tribe, some thousands in number, left their 
homes and their land, and fled across the Limpopo River, 
taking refuge in Sechele's territory, for they feared, if 
they stayed after what had occurred, they would be wiped 
out. J do not wish it to be inferred from this example 



42 Kruger and the Black Men. 



of the Boer method of treating natives that the President 
is, or was, a monster of cruelty ; on the contrary, he has 
a most benevolent disposition — where whites are con- 
cerned. He would stop in the road at any time, however 
much occupied by affairs of State, to dry the tears of a 
child/' 

The Boer attitude to the natives was well defined in 
one of the articles of the Fundamental Law. "The peo- 
ple," it is said, "will admit of no equality of persons of 
color with white inhabitants, neither in state nor church." 
With that guiding rule Oom Paul was, and is, in perfect 
accord. 



CHAPTER VI. 



KFUGFR AS A BRITISH OFFICIAL. 

In 1852 the British Empire was suffering from a 
strange attack of indolence, apathy, and indifference. 
Downing street seemed for the time to care nothing for 
the prospects of empire, or for our duties and promises 
ro weaker races. England was, for the moment, a "weary 
Titan," anxious to roll off the load of greatness from 
its back. Colonies were esteemed a weakness, not a 
strength, and Africa, the key-stone of our Empire, was 
regarded by our responsible Ministers as not worth seri- 
ous consideration. It was in this mood that England 
signed the Sand River Convention, granting the Trans- 
vaal its independence, pledging England to make no en- 
croachment or enter into no treaties with the native tribes 
north of the Vaal River, and binding the Boers to abolish 
slavery. 

The Bot-rs had now all they had asked. They were 
absolutely independent, but yet they were not happy. 
The spirit" of progress, which they had in vain tried to 
shut out, penetrated their land. The young people were 
not all content to remain ignorant: they wanted schools, 
they wanted some of the comforts of civilization which 
their fathers had thrown on. one side. To obtain manu- 
factured articles from other lands they must have some 
more ready means of exchange than barter, and so the 
young Republic it necessary to have its own coin- 

age. Kruger was now one of the Executive Council, the 
small bodv that ruled the land. The President and Coun- 



44 



Kruger as a British Official. 



cil imagined that they could make as much money as they 
liked by the simple process of turning on a printing press 
and printing off notes of any nominal value. 

It is hardly possible to exaggerate the evil state of the 
Republic at this time. A quotation from Chesson's 
"Dutch Republics/' gives a vivid picture of 1868: "The 
country is miserably poor, and public credit is at so low 
an ebb that the paper currency (which is the only money 
circulating in the Republic) is worth next to nothing; 
articles being sometimes sold at 500 per cent, above their 
real value, in order to eke out a profit. . . . There 
are laws, but obedience to them is far from general 
Little if any respect for authority exists. There are 
many high-sounding officials and departments, but there 
is no unity of action among them, and they are mostly 
maintained for show. One or two districts are in a state 
of open revolt against a government which is weak and 
imbecile as it is notoriously cruel. Education is all but 
neglected. The State does not support more than four 
schools, and the teachers complain that they cannot get 
their salaries. " 

As another writer at the same time put it, "The Volks- 
raad is incapable to make laws, the Executive is too feeble 
to carry them out, and the people on the whole too in- 
different to obey them. Nothing but confusion, disorder, 
stagnation." 

Isolation and reaction had conspicuously failed, and 
even the most fanatical of the Yoortrekkers realized that, 
unless utter anarchy was to supervene, there must be a 
change. When Pretorius, son of the famous old Voor- 
trekker, resigned, the people for once put even their re- 
ligious prejudices on one side, and chose as their Presi- 
dent a gifted, enlightened, and progressive minister of 
the Dutch Reformed Church, Thomas Burgers. 

Burger threw himself into his new task with zeal. He 



Kruger as a British Official. 



45 



went to Europe and raised loans to tide the Republic 
e ver its financial crisis. He started schools, cut roads, 
reorganized the Government, and even threw the whole 
of his private fortune into the national treasury. But 
he had one fatal fault which the Boers would never for- 
give. He was not a Dopper: in fact, he was not even 
strictly orthodox, but "Liberaalen," or a Broad Church- 
man. The suspicious farmers had overlooked this at the 
moment of election, but they ever remembered it against 
him. The countrymen formed a clique, headed by Paul 
Kruger, to put obstacles in the way of Burgers. 

Kruger was elected Vice-President, and for some time 
he and his allies seem to have very effectually acted the 
part of the dog in the manger. They grumbled while 
the country was going to ruin, without putting out a 
hand to save it. The country was threatened by the 
Zulus, but for the time the Boers seemed to have even 
lost their love of fighting, for they would not loyally 
respond to the President's call to fight the natives. The 
farmers refused to pay taxes and the Government could 
not compel them. All the loans were swallowed up, 
Burgers's private fortune had disappeared, and it was 
impossible to borrow more even on the personal security 
of the Executive. 

Cetywayo was threatening to overwhelm the land with 
his impis, and a campaign against Sekukuni led to seri- 
ous Boer repulses. It seemed plain that if in a few weeks 
something was not done, the Transvaal Republic would 
be swept out of existence by the blacks. 

At this moment Great Britain stepped in. Lord Car- 
narvon was planning to make South Africa a great con- 
federated dominion, under the British flag, like Canada, 
where men of many races should work loyally, peacefullv, 
and equally together. It was a noble dream. Partly to 
help on this scheme, partly to relieve the Transvaal from 



4 6 



Kruger as a British Official. 



its difficulties, Sir Theophilus Shepstone was sent as Her 
Majesty's Commissioner to Pretoria, with authority to 
annex the Transvaal if necessary. 

Sir Theophilus Shepstone has since come in for much 
abuse, but few can study at first hand the condition of 
Pretoria at that time without learning that he acted with 
the greatest wisdom and foresight. He was himself an 
Afrikander, trusted by the people, skilled in managing 
even the most intractable farmers, and with clear views 
of what he wanted. The people as a whole welcomed 
him. Those with some remnants of the Voortrekker 
spirit still left were so disheartened that they hardly cared 
to even whisper a protest. Amidst general agreement he 
hoisted the British flag. 

A small majority, amongst whom was Kruger, pro- 
tested, and Kruger and a Hollander official, Dr. Jorissen, 
went to Europe to repeat their protest. But even they 
finally gave in, and on his return Kruger accepted office 
under the new administration. 

Shepstone brought for the time peace and rest. His 
personal influence kept back the natives, and finally Cety- 
wayo was fought and overcome by the British army. 
Shepstone in formal proclamation declared that the 
Transvaal would remain a separate Government, with its 
own laws and legislature, enjoying the fullest legislative 
privileges compatible with the circumstances of the coun- 
try. All existing laws were to be retained until altered 
by a proper authority, and the Dutch language was to be 
used equally with the English as the official tongue. In 
short, Shepstone contemplated a self-governing colony, 
w r ith equal rights for all white men, under the protection 
of the Union Jack. 

Had this programme been loyally carried out, there 
would have been no Transvaal question. The Transvaal 
would have been to-day a contented and prosperous part 



Kruger as a British Official. 47 



of the Empire, and the old hatred between Dutch and 
English would be now in South Africa as much a matter 
of ancient history as the hatred between French and 
English is in Canada. But it was not to be. 

Perhaps the officials thought Sir Theophilus Shepstone 
had been too successful, and was taking too much honor. 
Perhaps amongst the dummies and mummies of red tape 
departments there was even jealousy of him. At all 
events, he was recalled, and a military man of the old 
school, Sir Owen Lanyon, put in his place. 

English capital and English settlers had flocked in, and 
the land was once more putting on an air of prosperity. 
But the promised representative government never came. 
Sir Owen Lanyon was not to blame for this, for he could 
not force the hands of the home authorities of Whitehall. 
But he did not understand the Boers. He and his Eng- 
lish followers despised them, scoffed at their courage, de- 
fied their prejudices. The Independence party, that at 
first had been next to powerless,- grew almost daily in 
numbers and strength. The farmers looked to their guns, 
and Kruger, Joubert and Pretorious quietly but persist- 
ently carried on their agitation. Kruger had previously 
to this resigned his Government post. 

The Independence party received both moral and ma- 
terial support from England. Mr. Gladstone, in the 
height of his Midlothian campaign, used, the annexation 
of the Transvaal as a scourge for the Conservative Gov- 
ernment. A very different party helped secretly. The 
Physical Force section in Ireland saw in the Transvaal 
their opportunity, and there is good reason to believe that 
they rendered Kruger and his allies monetary aid through 
Alfred Aylward, a well-known and able Fenian exile. 

Month by month the agitation grew fiercer. There 
was a section, even of the Boer farmers, still in favor of 
leaving things alone, but it was overborne. The discon- 



48 Kruger as a British Official. 



tent was. helped by the rigorous manner in which the 
British authorities at Pretoria enforced the taxes, and 
there seems no doubt but that in many instances the ad- 
ministration acted both harshly and unjustly. 

When Mr. Gladstone was elected to office in 1880, the 
Boers felt confident that he, who had so strongly advo- 
cated their cause while in opposition, would now grant 
them the liberty they desired. They did not understand 
that English political system by which, however much the 
opposition may fight against a .measure, they seldom re- 
peal it, once passed, when they return to power. 

Even the English inhabitants of Pretoria called on the 
Government to fulfill its promises of granting representa- 
tive government ; but England seemed to have been seized 
with madness in its Transvaal policy. 



CHAPTER VII. 
the; appeal to arms, 

It is a sad task for any Englishman to have to go over 
the time that followed. Happily it only concerns us so 
far as it is bound up with Kruger's own story. 

Although Kruger had organized the opposition he did 
not want w r ar. He knew the strength of England, and 
the perils such a campaign must mean ; and though none 
has doubted his personal courage, he wished to keep the 
appeal to arms as the very last resort. But the farmers 
grew more and more restive. At every meeting they had 
fresh stories to tell of British injustice, of still more limi- 
tations to their liberty, of the seizure of leaders, of Eng- 
lish taunts about their cowardice, of iniquitous imposts, 
of a farcical Volksraad, of oppression which no free men 
could endure. Kruger exercised all his influence to calm 
them, and give them patience. 

The whole country was as* a powder mine, and soon a 
lighted match was put to it. Bezhuidenot, a farmer, son 
of a man who was hanged by the British nearly sixty 
years before for rebellion, was summoned by the authori- 
ties for taxes. He really owed £14, but the tax-gatherers, 
making a "mistake" common to them then, demanded 
£27 5s. Bezhuidenot offered to pay the £14, but the mag- 
istrate ordered him now to pay costs, £13 5s., bringing 
the total up to the original sum. He refused to pay this, 
whereupon the Sheriff seized a wagon of his, and an- 
nounced its sale by auction. 

Stung by the injustice of the affair, a party of Bezhui- 
denot's neighbors forcibly seized the wagon and bore it 



5° 



The Appeal to Arms. 



off in triumph. Sir Owen Lanyon sent a party of sol- 
diers to 'arrest the ringleaders. The soldiers were met 
by a large party of armed Boers, who openly defied them. 

The Boers sent for Kruger. who hurried up. He met 
t lie officer and talked over the matter with him. "I only 
arrived last night/' said Kruger. "Before I came I was 
not aware that matters were so dark and threatening. I 
came to try to prevent the shedding of blood. Here you 
see all these men armed, and they are determined to fight. 
If it is in my power, I shall do all that I can to prevent 
them from coming to Mows. Fo r years I have striven 
to do this, but now it is the last and final effort I shall 
make. If they will not listen to me. then I must wash my 
hands of it. and I can truly say that I have done my 
utmost/' 

The ringleaders were not given up. but the Boers held 
a great meeting at Pardekraal. and on December 12 their 
leaders, headed by Kruger. signed a declaration of inde- 
pendence. No President was chosen, but Kruger was 
declared Vice-President, and with Joubert and Pretorius 
he made up a triumvirate, to carry on a provisional gov- 
ernment. The Boers did not enter into the matter gladly, 
for they hardly dared anticipate a favorable result. As 
one of their journalistic advocates in Xatal said a few 
weeks earlier, "No doubt the Boers don't expect to gain 
much, but they mean that 'some shall die for the people.' " 
The leaders did not hope at first for more than a re- 
moval of the worst of their grievances, or for so impress- 
ing the outside world as to convince it and compel the 
English policy toward them to be changed. As the days 
passed and unexpected success met their arms, their am- 
bition grew wider, and they thought to have all South 
Africa as one great Afrikander dominion. "With con- 
fidence we lay our case before the whole world, be it that 
we conquer or we die." said they. "Liberty shall rise 



The Appeal to Arms. 51 



from x\frica like the sun from the morning clouds, like 
liberty rose in the United States of North America, 
Then it will be from the Zambesi to Simon's Bay. Africa 
for the Afrikanders !" 

The English, one and all, at first heartily despised their 
opponents. Charges of cowardice were freely leveled, 
and nothing rankled more in the Boer mind. "Do you 
English call us cowards now!" they shouted a few weeks 
after, when they had won victory after victory. Even 
Sir Garnet Wolseley at first scoffed at ''these ignorant 
men, led by a few designing fellows, who are talking non- 
sense and spouting sedition." 

Kruger was now the admitted Boer leader, and from 
the headquarters at Heidelburg he saw to everything. 
The attitude he maintained throughout the campaign was 
that of one who was fighting for God and liberty. This 
is best shown in a proclamation to his forces after the 
battle of Majuba Hill. 

ORDER OF THE DAY. 

To the Commandant General, Commanders, Officers and 
Burghers in the Transvaal Army at Drakensberg. 

Men and Brothers — Our hearts urge us to say a 
word to you. We know that the whole South African 
Republic looks up to you with gratitude. We glory not 
in human power, it is God the Lord who has helped us — 
the God of our fathers, to whom, for the last five years, 
we have addressed our prayers and our supplications. 
He has done great things for us. and hearkened to our 
prayers. 

And you, noble and valiant brothers, have been in His 
hands the means of saving us; your valor and courage 
have proved to the mighty power which so unjustifiably 
assailed us that even the weakest people, fighting for its 



52 



The Appeal to Arms. 



liberty, is able to effect prodigies of valor. Three times 
now — at Laing's Xek, at Skheyn's HoOgte — you have 
with your small force repulsed and beaten an overwhelm- 
ing enemy. Cannon and treacherous and horrifying mis- 
siles have not dismayed you. 

You Commandant General writes, not speaking of 
himself (he is too noble to praise himself) — no, speaking 
of officers and very young warriors : "My regard for them 
is great, their names deserve to be preserved with those of 
Wellington and Napoleon." We repeat it after His Honor, 
and make it general of the Commandant General and of 
every burgher who fought. Our regard for you is great ; 
in the name of the Fatherland we thank you, you have 
deserved much of the Fatherland. 

Continue so to the end. The God who guides the 
hearts of kings like running brooks will deliver us. Trust 
in Him. 

The Government of the South African Republic, 

S. J. P. Kruger. Vice-President. 

South African Republic Government House, Heidelberg. 
March 7, 1881. 

The conscience of the British Government, which had 
been deaf to appeals, awoke to the clash of arms. The 
troops whom the Boer army had conquered were very 
small bodies, only six hundred Englishmen being engaged 
even in Majuba Hill. An army of ten thousand men, un- 
der Sir Evelyn Wood, was dispatched hastily to the front, 
but before it could engage the Boers, the home Govern- 
ment ordered an armistice. The now triumphant Trium- 
virate met General Wood in a little farm-house under the 
shadow of Majuba Hill, and there discussed terms. It is 
an open secret that Sir Evelyn Wood had prayed " the 
home Government to let him fight the Boers first, being 



The Appeal to Arms. 53 



confident that he had them in the hollow of his hand ; but 
he was ordered to make peace. 

The terms arranged excited deep disgust on both sides. 
England granted the Transvaal its independence in inter- 
nal affairs, reserving control over foreign relations, and 
the power to move troops through the country in time of 
war. A royal commission was to fix up the boundaries 
and other debatable matters, and until it had done so the 
Transvaal was to remain under British rule. 

Sir Evelyn Wood felt deeply being obliged by his Gov- 
ernment to make such a peace; but the Boer burghers 
were still more indignant. They were now confident of 
their power to drive the English into the sea ; why, then, 
should they be obliged to cease fighting for a compromise 
like that? For days Kruger, Pretorius, and Joubert were 
unceasingly abused by their own side. 

But Kruger knew, none better, that it was one thing 
to meet small British forces, another to fight a British 
army corps. His men were not then organized, nor were 
they so strong as in later years. He, at least, had no de- 
lusion that he had beaten England. Speaking some years 
afterward to the representative of a London newspaper, 
he was emphatic on this point : 

"Amajuba!" repeated the President with warmth, in 
answer to a question of the correspondent. "It's all 
wrong about Amajuba. I am sorry to see that the Eng- 
lish people seem to keep up such a foolish feeling about 
that. People say we think we conquered the English. 
I'll tell you what we do think, and not one man, or tw r o, 
but all the men in the Republic." The President paused 
a moment, and blew out a cloud of smoke with great 
energy. He was not in the least phlegmatic, by the way, 
in conversation, but forcible, voluble, prone to gesture. 
"We think that the English did not know what were the 
wishes of our people when they took the country away 



54 The Appeal to Arms. 

from us. Then we said, we will show them that we do 
love our country. We knew that England was much 
stronger, but we said, sooner than have our country taken 
away from us unjustly, we will fight until we die. Then 
the English people saw that they were in the wrong and 
they gave us hack our country. You can tell the English 
people that this is what we think. It is the busybodies 
who write to England and make out that we are ahvays 
boasting about Amajuba who do the harm. But yon can 
go and talk to the farmers, and you will find what I say 
is the truth. "* 



* Pall Mall Gazette, February. 1890. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



BUILDING THE REPUBLIC. 

Kruger and his two allies, Joubert and Pretorius, had 
now before them a most difficult task, one calculated to 
tax to the utmost their power of statesmanship. They 
had to fight diplomatically with England to get the best 
terms possible, and at the same time they had to induce 
their own burghers to disarm and go peaceably home. It 
is safe to say that if the burghers had known at first all of 
the pow r er England retained, there would have been al- 
most a rebellion against Kruger. The burghers were not 
unnaturally somewhat intoxicated with their triumphs. 

It says much both for the solid qualities of the Boer 
people and for the skill of Kruger that the few months 
immediately after the war passed off so well. The con- 
ditions now were altogether different to those before the 
war. Every one was forced to admit the impossibility of 
excluding outsiders from the land, but the new question 
was how to control them. Kruger fixed his line of policy. 
He, a countryman, would be the advocate of the country- 
man as against the townsman. Everywhere else on the 
earth, the power of the country diminishes and the pow T er 
of the towns grows. In his land, the towns should be as 
nothing, while the power of the few farmers should be 
supreme. Accordingly, boroughs were disfranchised, 
and the old policy of putting the voting power in the 
hands of every white man was reversed for a more lim- 
ited franchise. 

On August 8, 1 88 1, the flag of the new Republic was 
hoisted at Pretoria, and Kruger and his colleagues issued 



56 Building the Republic. 

* : : 

a proclamation, declaring that "Our motto is 'Unity and 
Reconciliation/ our liberty is, 'Law and Order/ " In 
spite of much grumbling, they showed the people that the 
Government of the future meant to be a ^ real ruling 
power. Their great difficulty was lack of money. The 
farmers retained their inherited hatred of paying taxes, 
even to their own authorities, and they smuggled to avoid 
the customs and cheated to get the best of the rate collec- 
tor. It may be asked how folks who pride themselves on 
their religion could do this. It is not my business to ex- 
plain human nature, so I cannot say. But those who ask 
the question should also ask why it is that the Strict 
Presbyterian elder in the Highlands of Scotland takes 
pride in drinking whisky "that has never paid a penny to 
the gaugers," or how decent country folks in Northum- 
berland think it no shame to eat smuggled salmon. Hu- 
man nature is very much alike all over the world. 

To make money, Kruger was forced on a line of policy 
which has since been one of the great industrial curses of 
his State — the granting of concessions and monopolies to 
traders. This served a treble purpose. It enabled him 
not only to get some cash, but to reward his political fa- 
vorites or allies, and to cripple the activity of his oppo- 
nents. He defended it to the Volksraad on the ground 
that it protected infant industries. At the same time, 
Kruger built up a rigid tariff wall around his land, re- 
warding his old allies, the Dutch farmers of the Free 
State and the Cape, by excluding their produce. 

In 1883 the election of the President took place, and 
Kruger was chosen by a majority of over two to one, 
about five thousand votes being cast. His rival was Jou- 
bert, who for years has been the only man in the Trans- 
vaal who can in any way approach him in public esteem. 
Joubert is generally regarded as more progressive than 
Kruger. and more inclined to be friendly with the Eng- 



Building the Republic. * 57 



lish ; but he has not the staying power, the organizing 
skill, or the ability to mold men as he will, that the 
President shows. The two work together in office, part- 
ners yet competitors. 

In the winter of 1883-4 Kruger made his second visit to 
England. The Rand had never been satisfied with the 
convention of 1881, and it was thought that there was 
now a chance of securing betters terms from England. 
Lord Derby was Colonial Secretary, and he was neither 
keen for imperial progress, nor far-sighted in- seeing what 
steps were necessary to guard the future. Accordingly, 
Messrs. Kruger, Smit, and du Toit, the delegates, found 
him just the man they wished. They did not get all they 
w r anted, but they secured very much. In the new Con- 
vention of London the suzerainty of England was passed 
over without mention, save for the right to approve or 
disapprove of treaties with all nations except the Orange 
Free State. The Transvaal renewed its old pledge to 
forbid slavery or "imboking." The power of England 
to move troops through the State in time of war disap- 
peared. Provision was made for certain minor affairs, 
such as the currency in which old debts were to be paid 
and the like, but the really vital matters of international 
intercourse, save the delimitation of boundaries, were 
ignored. It was a case where British prescience might 
have saved endless future trouble, but there seemed no 
one on our side with the necessary foresight. 

A little incident during this visit showed more than 
anything else the financial straits of the Transvaalers. I 
repeat the story as it has been told in South African cir- 
cles ever since. Kruger and his associates found their 
money running very short in London. They had to stay 
at a good hotel, as befitted their position, but they had not 
enough money to meet their hotel bill. They were in sore 
trouble when an English speculator, Baron Grant, came 



58 Building the Republic. 



to the rescue. He would pay their hotel bill if they 
signed a little letter for him. The letter was drawn up 
by Grant's secretary, and duly copied and issued by the 
secretary of the Transvaal Commissioners. Xo one saw 
at that time how important that letter would afterwards 
prove. Baron Grant was floating some Transvaal prop- 
erties on the English market, and wished for assurance 
of their protection ; but the letter went much further than 
that. It practically gave free invitation to the Outlanders 
to come into the land, and assured them of good treat- 
ment. Had Kruger seen what was coming, he would 
surely have rather had any trouble over hotel bills than 
agree to it. 

During this visit the delegates went to several capitals 
on the Continent, and were everywhere made much of, for 
Europe was awakening to the fact that the Transvaal had 
a future before it. Kruger, the man whom English ad- 
ministrators had delighted to snub and patronize, found 
himself suddenly regarded as a master of men. Doubt- 
less this visit helped to turn him more and more from 
England, and toward Holland, Germany, and Portugal. 
When the delegates were in Paris, Mrs. Crawford, the 
well-known journalist, interviewed them, and got an in- 
teresting account of their boyhood. 

"Joubert said that the Transvaal Boers were hereditary 
marksmen. They were in past generations particular, 
whether Calvinists or Arminians, to have their children 
taught to read as a necessary part of religious instruc- 
tion. Homesteads were at great distances from schools 
and churches ; wild beasts and hostile Kaffirs infested the 
country. Still, to school the children had to go. Each 
boy was provided with a gun and a pouch .supplied with 
ammunition. He was expected on his way back to keep 
his hand and eye in practice as a marksman, and showed 
he did so by bringing back a bag filled with game. The 



Building the Republic. 



59 



Kaffirs stood in awe of these Transvaal children, who 
were taught not to be aggressive or to provoke attack. 
Is not that so, President?' said Joubert, in Dutch, to 
Kruger, who sat smoking a big pipe. 'Yes, we try to 
make our youngsters understand that the meek shall in- 
herit the earth. 5 " 

But though this may have been true enough of Jou- 
hert's schooldays, it was not of Krugers, for he never had 
the privilege of tramping off to school. 



CHAPTER IX. 



KRUGER AS PHARAOH. 

In 1886 the world was startled by the rumor 'of the dis- 
covery of a peculiar kind of gold-bearing conglomerate 
some thirty miles from Pretoria. At first, the gold ex- 
perts of the world scoffed at the idea of the discovery 
being anything more than a nine days' wonder, but a few 
speculators bought up farms right and left in the dis- 
trict. Then it was found that the new field was the rich- 
est gold centre under the sun. At once a mad rush set 
in ; the diamond mines at Kimberley had brought thou- 
sands of adventurers to South Africa; but diamond dig- 
ging was already becoming rather a matter for great 
companies than for individual speculators. The adven- 
turers flocked into the Transvaal, and were followed by 
thousands more. 

A new city sprang up as though by magic, Johannes- 
burg, and a fit of reckless share gambling began. Kru- 
ger and his farmers took little direct part in it, but it 
changed the whole situation for them. Their poverty 
was ended in a day. The farmers were able to sell part 
of their land for incredible sums, and f arms that a year he- 
fore would not have fetched a few thousand pounds, now 
changed hands for a quarter of a million or more. The 
burghers, from being almost the sole white inhabitants of 
the country, now found themselves as a minority of the 
white males. The Government taxes, that a few months 
earlier were barely enough to pay salaries, now filled the 
Treasury ; and when the Volksraad, rising to the situa- 



Kruger as Pharaoh. 



61 



tion, quickly imposed new taxes to press on the strangers, 
it found itself rich beyond the dreams of avarice. 

The burghers viewed the invasion at once with satisfac- 
tion, disgust, and alarm. They were satisfied in having 
passed from poverty to riches, in finding new customers 
for their farm produce and for their land, and in being, 
able to shift the taxes from their own shoulders. But 
they saw that the presence of sixty thousand white 
strangers would create a new political situation, And 
while they liked the gold of the strangers, they yet heart- 
ily despised them. Not only were most of them English- 
men, whom the Dutch now one and all looked upon as 
fools and cowards, but they were not even sober, steady 
men. Johannesburg became the centre of the most riot- 
ous, extravagant, gay life. New mining cities are rarely 
the ideal abodes of law and order, and Johannesburg was 
at first more disorderly than the usual run. For this both 
Boers and Outlauders were to blame, but the main blame 
must be laid on President Krugers administration,. The 
President and Volksraad were the makers and the ad- 
ministrators of the law, and had they spent some of their 
newly-found wealth on an adequate police force, they 
could have secured the same outward decency as was aft- 
erwards to be found in Dawson City during its boom. 

Instead of that, the President and Volksraad forgot their 
duty in their keen eagerness to make money. Sanitation 
w T as ignored, and very many strangers died from typhoid 
and similar preventable diseases. Members of the Presi- 
dent's family secured shares in liquor monopolies, which 
piled up hundreds of thousands for them, at the cost of 
the bodies and souls of the victims of their traffic. The 
burghers allowed the strangers to be as outwardly im- 
moral as they liked, so long as they paid well for the 
privilege. The local police force was little more than a 
body of bribed and incompetent nobodies. 



62 



Krager as Pharaoh. 



At first the strangers did not care. They were too 
eager to make money to think of health or good govern- 
ment, or the like. When a man could double his fortune 
in an hour, he had no time to see about a vote. But 
gradually Johannesburg settled down. The days of the 
great boom were followed by the inevitable depression, 
and then the people sought to put their house in order. 
The wilder spirits went elsewhere, and the mining indus- 
try began to establish itself on a sound commercial basis. 
Mining in the Transvaal has to be undertaken, not by the 
small parties of miners with picks and shovels, but by 
combinations possessing large capital and laying down 
expensive machinery. 

When the speculative fever was followed by a time of 
sound industrial progress, the capitalists at the head of 
the new undertakings looked around to see how things 
could be improved. There were several obvious things 
at once necessary. The capitalists could not perhaps be 
expected, as business men, to concern themselves very 
much about sanitation and such things, but they wanted 
the ordinary conveniences for transacting business that 
can be had in every other civilized land. First they 
wanted a railway. Everything had then to be brought 
hundreds of miles up country by ox-wagon, the slowest 
and most costly possible method of conveying goods. 
They wanted, not unnaturally, to be either able to manu- 
facture or else to import the articles, such as dynamite, 
necessary for mining. They wanted to have their Kaffir 
laborers protected against the temptation of drink. They 
would have liked cheaper food. 

These did not seem unreasonable demands, but Kruger 
would not listen to them. For long he resisted the railway, 
in every possible way, till at last he was practically forced 
to yield. He knew that railways would give strangers 
still greater facilities for entering his land, and even now, 



Kruger as Pharaoh. 



63 



had he been able, he would have liked to exclude them. 
That was too late, but he could at least make it as hard 
as possible for them to come. The proposal of the mine 
owners to import or manufacture their own dynamite he 
opposed for a more intelligible reason. He wanted dyna- 
mite manufactured in the country itself, in order to have 
facilities for securing a supply in case of war. This is 
not the place to enter into all the scandals of the dyna- 
mite business. Those who want to know them will find 
all they want in the report of President Kruger 's own 
Commission of Inquiry in 1896. But though the abuses 
were thus openly revealed, they still remain unredressed. 
The only reason which the most careful investigator can 
find why the native liquor traffic was not checked is be- 
cause the relatives and friends of the President reaped 
very considerable profit from it. 

The Outlanders appealed time after time to the Presi- 
dent for redress. He sometimes sent them away with 
soft words, sometimes with abuse, for growing years had 
made his temper very treacherous. Often he would ex- 
plain to them that he would gladly give them what they 
wanted, but his burghers would not immediately consent, 
and must be brought round. For a time this deceived the 
outside world, and English journalists drew sad pictures 
of the progressive and enlightened President, checked in 
his beneficent career by a stubborn and intractable peas- 
antry. I remember at the time discussing the point with 
a famous Afrikander jurist and statesman, an old and in- 
timate friend of the President. Our talk had turned on 
the question of reform, and, to my surprise, my compan- 
ion emphatically declared, "There will be no real reform 
while Paul Kruger is President!" "But he has just been 
saying how gladly he would satisfy his Outlander friends 
if he could," I protested. "That is all nonsense," the 
statesman replied. "I know Oom Paul as well as I know 



6 4 



Kruger as Pharaoh. 



any man, and in many ways I have the sincerest admira- 
tion for him. But he is not a reformer. If he wanted 
reform he could have it to-morrow, for he can do just 
what he pleases with his Volksraad. When he dies re- 
form will certainly come, and come quickly. But so long 
as he remains in power the Outlanders will not get a sin- 
gle real concession." That conversation took place sev- 
eral years back, and every day since has proved the truth 
of my companion's view. 

The President could be very rough to deputations when 
he pleased, especially when he got the worst in argument. 
His stock reply to any demand for reform was that it 
wank] imperii the independence of the country. When 
sn ( - ih m ler deputation talked of protesting, he shouted 
fiercely. "Protest! What is the use of protesting? I 
have the guns, you haven't." Another time, there were 
some Outlanders present at a meeting. "Friends," said 
the President, "you are not all friends here. There are 
some of you are murderers and thieves : nevertheless I 
will address you. Friends, murderers, and thieves." 

The Outlanders thought at first that they might, by 
becoming citizens, obtain political power, and so influence 
legislation. Kruger saw this danger, and guarded 
against it. Originally an alien could be naturalized after 
five years' residence. A number of strangers came in in 
1886-7, and would have obtained political power about 
1893. So in 1890 the constitution of the Volksraad was 
changed, all the real power being put into the hands of a 
First Chamber, which was elected solely by those who 
had been eligible for ten years to vote for the Second 
Volksraad. In other words, a man must be fifteen years 
in the land before he could have any political power. 
This, of course, shut out all the Outlanders. Further 
taws were passed, the one result of which was, as Presi- 
dent Kruger intended, that no Outlanders but a picked 



Kruger as Pharaoh. 



65 



few approved by him should have part in the govern- 
ment. In other words the Republic became an oli- 
garchy, the countrymen exercising the power over the 
townsmen. The position was not new in the history of 
mankind, and had President Kruger studied thje records 
of other lands, he would have learned that the struggle 
has always finally ended in one way— in the triumph of 
city over country. 

The Outlanders petitioned and petitioned for some 
rights. "Go home and do your worst," the President 
once cried in wrath, "I will give you nothing." "If -I 
grant them what they want/' he another time told a 
friend, "I might as well haul down that flag at once," and 
he pointed as he spoke to the Transvaal colors flying out- 
side. Another time he compared the Outlanders with a 
man who said to the driver of a wagon, "Give us the whip 
ani the reins; our stock, our property, our interests, and 
our homes are also in this cart." But the driver replied, 
"Yes, that is all very fine, I admit your belongings are 
also in this cart, but where are you going to drive me to, 
and how do I know that you don't purpose upsetting 
me?" 

"An English minister," he said, "once compared a 
growing state to a child, whose frock has to be enlarged 
each year. This simile is applicable to our State. We 
have had to change the frock of our child so often that 
there is danger she will soon outgrow her parents. This 
is only to be expected, for old people, after they have 
reached a certain age, are always subject to decay, and it 
is then that young people overtake them." But he deter- 
mined that the decay of the Transvaal Republic should be 
prevented as long as possible. 

In 1890 an event occurred that undoubtedly greatly 
deepened his distrust of the Outlanders. Kruger went 
to JohatjH shurg to assure the people, among other things 



66 



Kruger as Pharaoh. 



that he intended to build a railway. There was much 
mutual suspicion, he got a very bad reception, and in the 
evening the Transvaal flag was pulled down and de- 
stroyed. Some of the madder rioters had a big scheme 
behind. They contemplated nothing less than seizing the 
President and his guard, laying hold of the arsenal at 
Pretoria, arming the Outlanders, and declaring a revolu- 
tion. Happily for them their scheme failed, for Jame- 
son's Raid would have been nothing to the fiasco that 
would have resulted. 

The friends of peace tried to make the President over- 
look the affair. Two years after they once more got him 
to visit the town. This time Johannesburg was happy, a 
public holiday was declared, and the Outlanders shouted 
themselves hoarse in the President's honor. "Lick-spit- 
tles !" the old man contemptuously declared, and not with- 
out cause, perhaps, for he had done nothing in the mean- 
time to reconcile them. 

Another incident, this time in 1894, showed the state 
of feeling. Sir Henry (now Lord) Loch visited Pretoria 
as High Commissioner about the question of comman- 
deering, certain British subjects having been compelled 
to serve with the Boer forces in fighting against a native 
chief. The incident may best be related in Sir Henry 
Loch's own words : 

"On my arrival at Pretoria I was met at the station by 
President Kruger, accompanied by many of his Execu- 
tive. There was a great crowd at the station, and it wa? 
with the greatest difficulty that President Kruger was 
enabled to have the way cleared for himself and myself, 
going to his carriage. The crowd was a very excited 
crowd. They removed the President's coachman from 
the box and took out his horses. Two men clambered on 
the box with Union Jacks, and in this way we were con- 
ducted to Pretoria, a distance of from a quarter to half a 



Kruger as Pharaoh. 



67 



mile. On our arrival at the hotel where rooms had been 
prepared for me, there was a great crowd assembled in 
the streets wishing to present addresses. I reminded 
those who were anxious to present addresses to me that 
I was the guest of a friendly power, and I refused to re- 
ceive any address unless proper consideration was paid 
to the President, to his Government and to the people of 
the South African Republic. There was much excite- 
ment at Johannesburg at this period. " m 

What was worse, the mob accidentally left President 
Kruger in his carriage at the door of Sir Henry's hotel, 
with the horses removed, and no way of getting forward. 
The High Commissioner had arranged to visit Johannes- 
burg, but President Kruger begged him, as an act of in- 
ternational friendship, to give up that intended journey. 
Had he gone, there would undoubtedly have been an up- 
rising of the English. So Sir Henry received a deputa- 
tion at Pretoria, arid there the talk turned on the ques- 
tion whether the Outlanders had any arms. Sir Henry 
intended, by asking the question, to show them the folly 
of their proposed rising, but they misunderstood him, and 
thought him to mean that if they had arms he would 
counsel resistance. This is the sense in which the depu- 
tation took it, and they remembered it to some purpose 
two years afterward. 

It can hardly be wondered that President Kruger 
viewed these strangers with suspicion. "They remind 
me," said he, "of the old baboon chained up in my yard. 
When he burned his tail in the Kaffirs 7 fire the other day, 
he turned round and bit me, just after I had been feeding 
him." 



CHAPTER X. 



KRUGER AND THE GERMANS. 

In dealing with England, Kruger s policy is to play 
one political party against another. In dealing with the 
world as a whole, his plan is to play one nation against 
another. Since 1884 he has constantly, and as far as 
possible secretly, sought to play German influences 
against British influences, in order to maintain his na- 
tional independence. Some have imagined that he might 
even welcome a German Protectorate. This is not so ; 
and he is perfectly well aware that such an idea is quite 
outside of practical politics. He has used the German 
to the utmost. He has given Germany considerable com- 
mercial advantages ; but he would fight as bitterly against 
German supremacy as he is now doing against English. 

His first attempt to approach Germany was in 1884, 
on his visit to Europe to secure the revision of the con- 
vention. At that time he visited Berlin, and was brought 
in close contact with members of the rapidly growing 
German Colonial party. In South Africa and England 
our statesmen had either treated him with contempt or an 
ill-concealed and irritating patronage, as though they 
were infinitely superior to this farmer-soldier-statesman. 
In Berlin, on the contrary, Kruger found himself at once 
a hero and an honored guest. Prince Bismarck declared 
him to be one of the greatet diplomats of the century; 
and the old Kaiser not only conversed with his guest in 
Low German, but discovered close religious sympathies 
with him. Kruger, in turn, spoke openly to -his host. 
"Your Majesty,' 5 he said, "you are an old gentleman, and 



Kruger and the Germans. 



6 9 



govern a powerful Empire. The Transvaal, when com- 
pared to Germany, is only a little child. Such a child 
looks for help to his parents and guardians. It may fall 
down, and then it wants to be helped up again. If we in 
the Transvaal are again in great need, will you help and 
deliver us?" 

The ambitious members of the German Colonial party 
thought they saw in Kruger one who could help them to 
check the British advance in South Africa. There were 
many discussions about what should be done and how ; 
and soon after Kruger returned home the plans were 
translated into action. According to the convention of 
1884, the western frontier of the Transvaal was strictly 
defined, this being purposely done in order to keep open 
for England the great trade route through Africa. This 
did not suit the Boers, who strongly objected to being- 
penned in by any exact borders. The Germans had al- 
ready seized Damaraland ; and the Boers conceived a 
scheme of annexing Bechuanaland, and thus having a 
solid line of territory right across Africa, preventing the 
British advance north. Hardly had Kruger returned to 
Pretoria before bodies of Boers openly organized in the 
Transvaal and invaded Bechuanaland. The expedition 
was not under the official protection of the Transvaal 
Government, but among its leaders were Transvaal of- 
ficials ; and President Kruger perfectly well knew what 
was going on, even if he did not, as many shrewdly sus- 
pect, quietly arrange for the whole thing. The raiders 
murdered one British official — Commander Bethell — in 
most cowardly fashion. They attacked Mafeking, and 
tried by force to assert sovereignty over the whole coun- 
try. They induced, or forced, native chiefs to invite them 
to establish republics there ; and in due course President 
Kruger issued a proclamation taking these new republics 
under the protection of the Transvaal. It was a verv 

r 



70 Krager and the Germans. 



pretty bit of work, and had it only succeeded it would 
have curbed Great Britain in most effectual fashion. 
Doubtless Kruger, when he had got so much already b\ 
bluffing England, thought he might well try to get a little 
more ; but England was awake this time. 

John Mackenzie, the missionary and .administrator, had 
been lecturing and lobbying in England to show what the 
Boer advance meant. Mr. Rhodes, then just coming to 
the front, helped in the same thing. The British Gov- 
ernment, struck by the insolence of the whole affair, sent 
an ultimatum to the Transvaal, compelling Kruger to 
withdraw his proclamation. It also sent a military expe- 
dition to Bechuanaland that drove the rebels and raiders 
back to their own home. It was the remembrance of this 
and similar raids that made many old Afrikanders smile 
sneeringly at the Boers' virtuous indignation over Dr. 
Jameson's Raid. A treaty of commerce with Germany 
Avas one of the steps in cementing the alliance ; but, fur- 
ther than that, Kruger proceeded in even' possibly way 
to favor the Germans. They shared with the Hollanders 
all the plums in monopolies and concessions : so much so. 
in fact, that many of the old Boers loudly grumbled. 
When the Delagoa Bay railway was built, the Germans 
held more shares than either the Hollanders or the Re- 
public. The railway was managed apparently to favor 
German traders, wherever favoritism could be shown. 
The Germans backed up Kruger by pouring capital into 
the country, and such trifles as the dynamite monopoly 
directly taxed every mine owner for their benefit. In at 
least one case, in a Government contract for electrically 
lighting the town of Pretoria, only four German firms 
were allowed to compete. German military officers were 
brought over, and when Dr. Leyds went to Europe in the 
autumn of 1896, with i85,ooo of the Secret Service 
money at his back, it was commonly believed that he 



Kruger and the Germans. 



meant to directly subsidize the immigration of old Ger- 
man soldiers to the Transvaal. 

In 1885, Kruger publicly, on the Kaiser's birthday, de- 
clared his policy of friendship for Germany, and later on, 
when the railway to Delagoa Bay was opened, four Ger- 
man men-o'-war were sent to take part in the festivities, 
and Kruger was received on them with almost royal 
honors. But it was not until January, 1896, that English 
people as a whole really awoke to the seriousness of the 
German menace. After the defeat of Jameson and his 
men, the Kaiser sent a> cable to Kruger publicly congratu- 
lating him on his victory. "I express to you," wrote the 
Kaiser, "my sincere congratulations that, without appeal- 
ing to the help of friendly powers, you and .your people 
have succeeded in repelling with your own forces the 
armed bands which had broke,n into your country, and in 
maintaining the independence of your country against 
foreign aggression. " This was not all. Another Ger- 
man man-o'-war was ordered to Delagoa Bay ; and the 
German Minister used the utmost pressure on the Portu- 
guese Government to induce it to permit the landing of a 
force of marines, and their passage through Portuguese 
territory into the Transvaal. The Portuguese refused. 

This act did more than arouse England — it put Kruger 
himself on guard. He clearly saw that the German de- 
sign now was to obtain a direct protectorate over his 
country. He was hardly in a position at that moment 
to publicly snub the Kaiser : but his friend and ally, Mr. 
Hofmeyr, leader of the Afrikander Bond, did it for him 
by openly laughing at the Emperor's telegram as bluster, 
and prophesying that the. first result of German war with 
England would be to lose Germany all her African pos- 
sessions. 



CHAPTER XL 

STORM, STRESS AND STRAIN. 



For the past eight years, President Krugers position 
has been anything but a bed or roses. The last decade of 
the century open*ed badly for him. His own burghers 
were growing restive, his personal popularity w T as declin- 
ing, his rival, Joubert, was rapidly growing in power, re- 
lations with England were stormy, and the Outlanders 
were threatening rebellion. Even the Dutch of the Free 
State had for the time turned against him. A number of 
officials had been brought in* from Holland, greatly to the 
disgust of burghers who were exploiting the land for 
their benefit. It is easy enough to blame President Kru- 
ger for this, and there were no more severe critics about 
this matter than his own people. But he sorely felt the 
need of trained and capable assistants ; his own people 
had been so isolated that they could not give him the 
legal, scientific, and technical knowledge lie wanted. He 
dared not trust the English and appoint them ; for he did 
not like Englishmen, and he knew that they would prob- 
ably use their posts to further Outlander claims. Hol- 
landers and Germans were the only outsiders he could 
trust to work with him. 

People, too, were throwing against him the charge of 
corruption. It may be well here to detail the chief 
grounds on which that charge is urged. First comes the 
fact that he accepted the present of the house in which he 
now resides from a Mr. Nellmapius, and shortly after- 
ward bestowed on that gentleman the sole right to erect 



Storm, Stress and Strain. 



73 



a distillery and manufacture spirits from purchased fruit 
and grain. Later, he gave him the sole right to erect a 
jam factory. The second ground of the charge of cor- 
ruption is that he got the Volksraad to sanction the mak- 
ing of a road across his estate at a cost of £5,000, which 
would be of absolutely no use to any one but the owner of 
the farm. There are one or two minor affairs which 
need not be included. How far these two acts constitute 
political corruption, each reader can best decide for him- 
self. Certainly, compared with other things that have 
gone on in the Transvaal, they are mere nothings. 

In 1893 the Progressive party prepared itself for a 
great battle. The election of the first Volksraad took 
place that year, and also the presidential contest. The 
Progressives put forward General Joubert as their candi- 
date, and money was poured forth liberally on both sides. 
In Cape Colony and Natal, the standard of political con- 
duct, and the attitude toward bribery and corruption, is 
much the same as it was in England a century ago. Kru- 
ger had evidently been studying the ways of some of the 
political bosses of the United States, for he annexed their 
methods in wholesale fashion. As President, he had con- 
trol of the machinery of the elections, and he used that 
for his own purpose. Few, if any, doubt that General 
Joubert really secured a majority of the votes at that elec- 
tion ; but when the final poll was declared, Kruger was 
announced to have 7,881 votes, and Joubert 7,009. The 
Joubert party seriously considered the advisability of ap- 
pealing to arms against Kruger, but better counsels pre- 
vailed. Kruger was once more triumphant. 

Quarrels with England were frequent. The Boers 
wanted Swaziland, and Kruger made all manner of un- 
official promises of the good things he would do if he only 
got it. Various raids into British territory were started, 
and more than once England and the Transvaal seemed 



74 



Storm, Stress and Strain. 



at the point of war, and fighting was only avoided by 
Kruger giving way. 

Meanwhile a new man had arisen in South Africa, 
Cecil Rhodes. He and Kruger had first come to dispute 
over the Bechuanaland question, and soon they knocked 
against each other in further ways. In England there 
seems to be a common idea that all South African politics 
are summed up in the names of Rhodes and Kruger. 
This is far from correct, but it is certain that the two 
stand as the great representatives of the two divergent 
lines of policy — Rhodes for British supremacy and equal 
rights for all white men south of the Zambesi, Kruger for 
an independent Afrikander nation. Rhodes as Premier 
of Cape Colony, head of the diamond trust, "De Beers," 
chief of the great Transvaal mining company, the Con- 
solidated Gold Fields, and founder of Rhodesia, could not 
be ignored. In extending the dominions of the Empire 
over Matabeleland and Mashonaland, he closed the North 
to the Boers as a separate people. At first, he wanted to 
work with Kruger, as he worked with the Cape Dutch; 
and he went out of his way to make friendly advances. 
But the old President would have none of him. Kruger 
quickly got the idea that Rhodes was the cause of all his 
troubles, and a bitter hatred of him sprang up. During 
the past few years, the very mention of his name is 
enough to send the old man into a violent temper, and his 
favorite adjective for him is "Murderer." In common 
speech, he does not talk of "Mr. Rhodes," but of "That 
Murderer," and every one knows whom he means. 

As head of the Consolidated Gold Fields, Mr. Rhodes 
had a large pecuniary interest in securing good govern- 
ment in the Transvaal ; while, as Premier of Cape Colony, 
he wanted the everlasting disturbances there ended. The 
other great mine owners of Johannesburg joined with 
him, and together they fixed up a nice little plot. Dr. 



Storm, Stress and Strain. 



75 



Jameson, the Administrator of Rhodesia, was to bring a 
large portion of the Chartered Company's forces to Maf- 
eking, on the borders of the Transvaal. At the same 
time, arms were to be smuggled into Johannesburg, and 
the Outlanders were to be quietly organized. At a given 
signal the Boer arsenal at Pretoria \vas to be seized, the 
Outlanders armed, the President arrested, and a new 
provisional government proclaimed. At the same time 
Jameson was to ride over the border with a thousand men 
to help the new government. 

Kruger had a shrewd idea of what was going on, 
though he did not realize the full extent of the plot. In a 
gruff and biting sentence he told his people that they must 
wait till the tortoise put its head out of the shell, and then 
they could stamp on it. 

But the reformers started quarreling among them- 
selves as to whether the new government was to be un- 
der Great Britain or not. Urgent messages were sent to 
Dr. Jameson to delay his invasion until this point was set- 
tled, but the Administrator brushed them on one side, as 
though he had never heard them. Rash, bold, he believed 
that one good rush would finish the business ; and on the 
evening of the last Sunday in 1895 he and his men struck 
over into Transvaal territory. 

Their story is well known. Meanwhile, how were 
things going at Pretoria? Kruger's spies had served 
him badly, for he did not expect so quick a development. 
On New Year's morning the British agent, Sir Jacobus 
de Wet, was urgently summoned out of bed to go to the 
President. He found him up, with a number of his lead- 
ing officials around him. He was greatly excited, declar- 
ing that two thousand men from Johannesburg, with 
Maxims and cannon, were marching on Pretoria. A 
horse was standing ready saddled in his stable, to take 
him out of danger, and poor Mrs. Kruger, for once 



76 Storm, Stress and Strain, 



startled into some kind of interest in politics, was wonder- 
ing how her old man would ride, "for," declared she, "he 
has not been on the saddle for twenty years." 

Pretoria was in a panic, but it soon discovered the 
needlessness of its fright. Messengers were sent out on 
all sides, and before many hours the Boer farmers flocked 
in from a hundred districts ready to defend their leader 
with their lives. 

There is no need to tell the old tale, of how the Boer 
once more won, how Kruger played with his prisoners 
like a cat with a mouse, and how he succeeded in using 
the failure to place Johannesburg wholly under his heel. 

He had only one regret in his hour of triumph. He be- 
lieved that Cecil Rhodes was the main mover in the af- 
fair, and he wanted him punished. "What is the use of 
whipping the little dogs when the big one is out of 
reach ?" he asked. 



CHAPTER XII. 



FAILURE. 

Kruger had now everything in his own hands. Johan- 
nesburg was tired of politics, and revolutions were at a 
discount. England felt its hands were tied, and that for 
that time it must leave the Transvaal to work out its own 
fate. The most moderate exercise of real statesmanship, 
of wisdom toward his opponents, of generosity, would 
have made all right. Fifteen years before Kruger might 
have done this ; now he was too much set on his own way 
to swerve an inch. . 

Good counselors who had proved their devotion to him 
through long years begged him to act up to his declara- 
tion of peace to Johannesburg. But other counselors 
were not wanting; and some of the Hollander officials 
were tireless in painting the picture of an independent 
South Africa, secured in its independence by the Conti- 
nent of Europe, over which Kruger should rule as Presi- 
dent. At times Kruger's speeches seemed to point in one 
direction, at times to another, but the end was always the 
same. The heel was ground more firmly on the Outland- 
ors, till the cry of their suffering filled the earth. 

Even in England very little sympathy was now felt for 
the Johannesburgers. It was thought (not altogether 
justly) that they had fooled away their chances, and de- 
served all they got. They were openly taunted with 
cowardice, and for a time their city was nicknamed 
throughout South Africa, "Judasberg." Their conspir- 
acy was perhaps the worst managed conspiracy English- 
men had ever taken part*in during recent years, and they 



7» 



Failure. 



had been content to lay down their arms without striking 
a blow. No doubt they had innumerable very good ex- 
cuses; no doubt they were jockeyed and fooled by Kru- 
ger ; but the world would have preferred to hear their ex- 
cuses after they had fought. 

The case of Johannesburg was the more remarkable, 
because several of the leaders were men of tried and 
proved courage. But if they had been unwise they as- 
suredly had to suffer for it. The Boers assumed the most 
intolerable airs. The Englishman was only fit for insults 
of every kind, and they took care that he got insults in 
plenty. The British Government was watching, but for 
some time could do nothing. Kruger had now got to a 
stage of despising England. "Chamberlain !" he and his 
supporters would joke together. "Yes, Chamberlain 
barks very loud, but you never feel his bite. He is al- 
ways worrying at your heels, but he never puts his teeth 
in them." 

At last things came to a*crisis through what at the time 
seemed a very little thing. An English subject, Edgar, 
was shot by a Boer policeman under circumstances which 
excited great indignation amongst British subjects in the 
Transvaal. They appealed to the Queen directly, and 
called a meeting, which was broken up in rough fashion 
by a Boer mob. Sir Alfred Milner, the British High 
Commissioner for South Africa, interposed, and the end 
was a conference between him and President Kruger at 
Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Eree State, open- 
ing on May 31, 1899. 

England entered into this conference with a sincere de- 
sire to find a peaceful way of ending the South African 
strife. President Kruger entered it determined to make 
no real concessions. All on the inside track of Pretorian 
politics knew this. A little thing that came under my 
notice at the time may illustrate what Kruger's friends 



Failure. 



79 



knew. One South African leader of my acquaintance 
heard a friend declaring that the era of peace was at last 
to come through the conference. "I bet you ten thousand 
it isn't/' he said ; "but I tell you. you will simply throw 
your money away, for I am sure to win." I asked him 
why he was so sure. "There is no question whatever 
about it," he replied. "Even the British Government 
might know, if it wanted, that it is simply wasting time 
in holding the conference. Kruger has absolutely made 
up his mind to stand firm and yield nothing. He is mere- 
ly going through the talk as a matter of form. My ad- 
vices from Pretoria leave the matter beyond doubt." 

Events showed that my informant was right. To every 
proposal of Sir Alfred Milner the same reply was given, 
"You are attacking my independence." There Kruger 
stood. 

For weeks after the break-up of the conference the 
diplomatic contest went on, dispatch following dispatch, 
reply following reply, till all the world was weary. As 
the days passed it became clearer and clearer that the end 
could only be war. The Boers delayed things till they 
had secured their grass crop, and then, on Kruger's sev- 
enty-fifth birthday, a declaration of war was launched by 
them in terms which England had never had addressed to 
her since the days of Xapoleon. 

What new? What of to-morrow? To-day the noise 
of battle fills our ears, but what when the sound of the 
guns dies away? Is this old man to remain ever Eng- 
land's foe? Is he to go down to his grave fighting for 
his imagined liberty, or is a day to arise in Africa when 
even he will find all the justice and liberty he requires in 
a really free South Africa, under the British flag? We 
must admit that his bitterness against England has been 
to a certain extent caused by the mistakes of the English. 



8o 



Failure. 



It may be too late to reconcile him, but the day must sure- 
ly come when Dutch and English shall live in peace to- 
gether in one great dominion, when each shall respect the 
courage of the other, each agree to forgive the mutual 
mistakes of past years, and work together, in the real 
Afrikander spirit, for home and empire. 



THE 

Transvaal Boer Speaking for Himself 

EXTRACTS FROM THE WORK BY 

C. N. T. DU PLESSIS, 

OF JOHANNESBURG. 

Translated by R* ACTON. 



INTRODUCTION. 



A complete reproduction of the Dutch book written by 
Mr. Du Plessis would be tedious, owing to its length. I 
sympathize, however, to a certain extent, with the cause 
which he advocates, that of the political independence of 
the two Dutch Africander Republics, upon the grounds 
that those territories, beyond the Orange and the Vaal 
rivers, occupied by their fathers sixty years ago, had 
never been claimed by any title as under the dominion of 
the British Crown ; and that personally the emigrant 
Boers of 1836 and 1837, middle-aged men, the heads of 
families, who were born in the Cape Colony before it was 
v transferred, in 18 15, from the dominion of the Dutch 
Xetherlands to that of King George III., owed no allegi- 
ance to the new sovereign when they chose to seek an- 
other abode far beyond the frontier. This claim to en- 
tire independence in a new country which lay vacant for 
any people could not be taken away from them or their 
sons by any arbitrary acts done afterward in the name 
of Queen Victoria's Government, without actual con- 
quest ; neither by the proclamation of the "Orange River 
Sovereignty/' which after six years was formally an- 
nulled in 1854, nor by the annexation of the Transvaal in 
1877, a st iH more unwarrantable proceeding, which was 
nullified by the conventions of 1881 and 1884. The 
rights of the Transvaal Boers to the fullest and freest 
self-government had, indeed, been previously acknowl- 
edged and established, and not as a grant of grace, by the 
Sand River Convention of 1852. I think it is the duty of 



8 4 



Introduction. 



any loyal and patriotic Englishman, however insignificant 
. and obscure he may be, to advocate, for the honor of his 
own nation, the continued observance of such state en- 
gagements. 

I leave "the Transvaal Boer" to speak for himself and 
his nation. His sentiments, as those of an Afrikander 
who has never seen Europe, are different from mine as 
an Englishman ; but it is useful now to become acquainted 
with them. R. A. 

London, October 21, 1899. 



THE TRANSVAAL BOER SPEAKING 
FOR HIMSELF. 



CHAPTER I. 

BOER LIFE, OLD AND YOUNG. 

Reader, this book of mine contains "Passages of the 
History of the Afrikanders." In succeeding chapters you 
will see I have followed the course of events concerning 
the formation and position of the " South African Repub- 
lic/' But it will be useful, it is needful for knowing the 
character of this community; first of all to go further 
back, more than half a century ; and I will not here begin 
with an account of wars, or of state politics, for I wish 
you, and I wish our own young people, Afrikanders now 
growing up to be the men and women in charge of this 
fine country forty or fifty years hence, to read what was 
the life, the habits and manners of our old forefathers. I 
know what it was before my lifetime ; for when I was a 
boy, I often listened to the talk of the old men. There 
sat the grandfathers, with fathers and uncles, each upon 
his rudely-made Veld-stool, with his own long-stemmed 
pipe to smoke ; and we children sat around, near, enough 
to hear what they said, about what one of them had seen 
and another of them had done, it might be, as I suppose, 
now, more or less a hundred years ago. 

Well now, young people who hear my talk, let me say a 
little of the way we Boers lived when I was of the age of 



86 Boer Life, Old and Young. 



one or another of you. At Ventersvallei, in the district 
of Colesberg, near the Orange River, I was born, about 
two years after the exodus of the old Boer Voortrekkers, 
who, like the Hebrew^ when Pharaoh was forced to let 
them go from bondage, taking their flocks and herds, 
went tip armed out of the king's land to another land, 
which the Lord had promised Israel, that they might 
serve the Lord, they and their children. Never forget 
that, young Afrikanders ! how the English dominion was 
to your fathers as the kingdom of Egypt, from which the 
Lord helped them to go free! Keep now from English 
ways; so, in time, under God's blessing, with His prom- 
ise, shall the numbers- of your people, who possess this 
land, in the north and in the east parts of South Africa, 
hereafter be increased tenfold; and it shall be for the 
Afrikander nation to rule over it, with a confederation of 
United States of South Africa, strong enough to defend 
it, not only against the mighty British Empire, but 
against any European power. For what has the Eng- 
lishman ever done here for us, that he should reign here 
over the free Afrikanders? Our fathers have subdued 
the wilderness, clearing' it of ferocious beasts and con- 
quering the savage warrior nations — those who were led 
by Moselikatze on the Vaal River^ in tens of thousands — 
and by Dingaan in Natal, who slaughtered the women 
and children in the Boer camps, and who treacherously 
slew the Boer guests at Dingaan's feast; but that was 
avenged on a day of battle, the 16th of December, 1838, 
with the defeat of the Zulus, which we still, under a per- 
petual solemn vow of thanksgiving to God, here celebrate 
yearly in the Transvaal ! When and where, I ask, did the 
English ever help our people? What protection have 
they ever afforded to us? Just after our fathers, in 
Natal, had defeated the Zulus, and had deposed the cruel 
tyrant Dingaan, setting up his peaceable brother Panda, 



Boer Life, Old and Young. 87 



the Governor of the Cape sent orders that they must give 
up their rifles and ammunition ; and because they would 
not yield, they were driven out of that land. We owe 
nothing to England ! We could have defended ourselves 
against the Zulus again, in Cetewayo's time, as we did be- 
fore. We did not invite Shepstone to save us. We are 
here in our own territory, which never belonged to the 
British Empire. I say that Rhodes and Jameson and 
their fellow conspirators in this city of Johannesburg, 
when they plotted, only the other day, to take from us the 
rule of this country, must have been under a delusion 
created by the devil ! 

But there are serious dangers in these days threatening 
to lessen the strength of our nation, and to undermine 
the State. Without saying more of politics to you, boys 
and girls., I want you seriously to understand that it is 
through you, the young Afrikanders, or some of you, that 
those dangers will come, if they are not resisted by each 
of you, now and in future. The character of the Eu- 
ropeans and Americans who come to this place, of late 
years, is different from that of the Afrikanders, as a na- 
tion. If we become like them, we shall be their servants, 
instead of standing as a free people. That is our chief 
danger now. But what is worse, the manners of some of 
them in this town are vicious, base and unworthy. You 
know, for your own conscious must tell you. that it is so. 
I should be sorry for any of you to grow up young men 
and women like them. 

When you hear of the. lives and habits of our old folk 
about fifty years ago, some little things will make you 
smile : they were so very simple, compared with all the 
new and better articles we have now. But the old arti- 
cles were useful to the old generation of people : and the 
old people, your forefathers, were good men in their time. 
I am not opposed to any modern improvements that come 



88 Boer Life, Old and Young. 



of science ; knowledge is good for us, as well as for the 
European nations. The Dutchmen, the Hollanders, whc 
have come to South Africa, many of them clever men, 
since about 1855, have instructed us, have reformed our 
schooling, and have corrected our use of the Dutch 
language, the ancient, noble language of our race, the 
language of our Bible, which had been corrupted by the 
children talking with slaves in the colonial households. 
We have been taught good reading and writing, arith- 
metic, drawing and music ; there have been able Dutch 
tutors in many rich Boers' families. In general, the 
Dutchmen who came here among us were poor men, seek- 
ing employment ; they had no money capital to invest 
here ; but they brought learning and skill, a far greater 
benefit to this country, if our young people learn from 
them. 

But it is different with the sort or class of other Europ- 
eans, the English especially, as we see them here in 
Johannesburg, and men of various foreign nations, ar- 
rived since the goldfields became so attractive. To con- 
sort with these, and to adopt their manners and habits 
and speech, would be the ruin of our nation. I solemnly 
warn you not to do so. That is why I now speak to you 
children. There is a false idea, among foolish or mean 
and unfaithful Afrikanders, that taking such a course is 
in the line of what they call "Progress." I think it leads 
to no good. It is the way to forfeit the Lord's blessing 
and promise. It makes you weak, till you become ser- 
vants of the Europeans. 

Xow then, for a sketch of our old Boer ways of life, 
the earliest home I can remember ; for I was three 
years, old when my father removed from Ventersvallei, 
where "Oupa,'' or "Old Pa/' my grandfather, lived, to 
Kareepoort, only three miles ; but we children thought the 
distance quite enough, afterwards, having to walk twice 



Boer Life, Old and Young. 



8 9 



a day to attend the school at Ventersvallei, which Oupa 
had caused to be set up. If you would like to know 
"Pa," that is, my own father, look at his portrait here, 
which shows him exactly as he sat, in his own arm-chair, 
with his legs crossed, with his pipe in his mouth, with his 
left hand holding a small Catechism book; that was on 
Sunday afternoon ; we five children, four sons and one 
daughter, ranged according to our ages, stood in a half 
circle before him ; the youngest was seven ; I, Nicholas, 
was the third son. My three brothers were much alike 
in complexion, but my sister, Betta, was like her father; 
we all had dark-brown, or nearly black, hair. Brother 
Willem w T as my chief companion. 

The Catechism — for it does seem lit to begin an ac- 
count of home life with religion — was a book of ques- 
tions and answers which we knew well by rote. Pa read 
out the questions, and we repeated the answers. It be- 
gan, "Who made you?" The answer was, "God" ; and 
so on, through the whole doctrine of the Bible. In the 
warm summer afternoons, I might feel sleepy; but my 
father had his hand-whip hanging behind his chair, so 
I tried not to fall asleep. We were permitted afterwards 
to go out for a walk, and even, if Ave saw any snakes, 
which were very plentiful, to kill them ; for the serpent 
is accursed, but we must not kill any other ceature on 
Sunday. For the restraint of our disposition to commit 
sins, there were two appointed instrumentalities, in the 
view of our parents and elders. The one was a smart 
rod, or scourge, made of pear-tree tw igs ; the other, which 
might be forewarned, but not directly administered, by 
human judges, was "the Great Fire," which, of course, 
meant Hell. This was spoken of very frequently ; and 
I literally believed in it when I was twenty years old : 
we all grew up in that belief. Never once, in my youth, 
did I hear any child of the Boers profanely swearing, or 



90 Boer Life, Old and Young. 



using foul and indecent words. The only improprieties 
in which they would indulge, when excited, were a men- 
tion of the "devil/' or the epithet "devilish ;" and 
"machtig!" supposed to be used for "Almighty !" as an 
exclamation of surprise calling on God. If any person 
uttered either of these phrases, and was overheard, some 
religiously-minded hearer would admonish him not to 
swear, or "You will burn in the Great Fire !" This warn- 
ing usually had its due effect. 

The grown-up folk, in these days, were afraid of their 
parson or minister, as children are afraid of their school- 
master. After dinner, for which the fattest lamb and 
finest poultry had been killed, and the daintiest pastry 
baked, he receives the elders and deacons ; they have been 
making their house-to-house visitation. Then he sits, 
with one local elder, in a room set apart for any parish- 
ioner, man or woman, to call upon him ; now it runs, 
"Well, Jan, how is your soul?" What constrained for- 
mal interchange of theological currency phrases may pass 
between them, I will not inquire. 

The stated religious assembly for the "Nachtmaal" 
Sacrament, at Colesberg, brought together many large 
caravans, or trains of wagons, conveying the Boer fam- 
ilies all the way to that town, with ample stores of victuals 
for their sojourn, demanding much preparation in each 
household. At stages on the road where they stopped 
and "uitspanned," they would sit drinking coffee and dis- 
cuss texts of the Bible, or church affairs; in 1851, the 
introduction of an organ, constructed by an English 
maker named Insor, who came first to play upon it, in 
the Colesberg church, occasioned some temporary dis- 
sension. It certainly, at first, perplexed the congregation 
in singing the psalms, as they were acquainted only with 
the old, slow measure in which their "voorzanger," Oom 
Gabriel, used to intone the simple melody. What would 



Boer Life, Old and Young. 



9* 



they say to the performances in some of our churches 
now, as in the Fordsburg church here, with a troop of 
dressed-up singing girls upon the platform behind the 
minister, as at a concert hall: or a choir of vocal artists 
to execute foreign anthems? Their musical squalling is 
like the opera; then, at the close, bursts out the roaring 
organ, to chase away every godly thought. English 
Church customs and notions, imported through the in- 
fluence of the Stellenbosch College into our community, 
are felt by many of us to be revolting. To other people, 
it may be, they seem edifying, but not to us. We don't 
want English fashions in religion or anything else. 

In the old times, as I think, what religion we had was 
simple and sincere, with little or no superstition, and with 
no artifice, no vain pretensions to ornament, no men- 
pleasing inventions. 

In repelling the calumnies, spiteful and malignant., not 
less than ignorant, uttered in England against cur nation, 
and in referring to their social life at a period when I, as 
much as any man could, must be intimately acquainted 
with it, I stand upon my own personal knowledge of the 
facts. Scarcely any community in the whole world could 
less truly be charged with a prevalence of vices and 
crimes. In my youth, up to 1854, I know but of three 
Afrikanders being sent to the prison at Colesburg: the 
first was acquitted, the other two got a sentence of three 
years' imprisonment ; in 1864, a man, born in Europe, as 
I remember, was hanged for murdering his wife : in 
thirty years there were, six prisoners, of whom two were 
found guilty. Immorality among cur young men and 
women then was unknown. They married at the a£ 
twenty, as I did. with the written, consent of parents, 
after being confirmed in the church. I first saw a man 
drtink when I was fifteen, and I did not understand his 
condition. Look at the numbers of wretched drunkards. 



+ 



92 Boer Life, Old and Young. 



and of female prostitutes, now in this city. What a con- 
trast! And the hundreds of criminals, of convict pris- 
oners, here in jail, or working in chains on the roads! 
It was not so when we had this country all to ourselves. 

In this manner, and in this mood, in kindly neighbor- 
hood, half a century ago, the Afrikanders lived in the 
land which they and their fathers had won from the wil- 
derness. They desired only to enjoy their freedom, to 
preserve their old customs, and to be at peace with all 
other nations, with all Europeans coming to settle on 
this continent. I know that our people have been much 
vilified and slandered by some English writers and speak- 
ers. We were not, according to modern ideas, an "edu- 
cated" people. To be sure, we were not ; in my boyhood 
the schoolmasters and the lessons for us children of the 
Boers were indeed contemptible. 

The school-books we used were the Bible, the ABC 
book, and "Steps for Youth;" but it was after having 
learned the last two books, to repeat them by heart, that 
we began to read in the Bible. We learned also to write 
a little with pen and ink and paper, having no slates, and 
to know and make the ciphers of arithmetic. More was 
not required, and I believe that Meester himself knew 
nothing more. 

There was a little girl called Mietje, rather ugly and 
disagreeable to her school-fellows ; twelve years old, and 
always in fault and disgrace. When she had begun with 
the Catechism, it happened that a couple of the Boers' 
wives came to visit the school. Mietje was sent for to 
be examined, but fearing that she was to be punished 
with Meester's rod upon the palm of her hand for some 
horrible wickedness she might have ignorantly committed, 
hid herself behind a dunghill. When she was brought 
in, a trembling captive, before the ladies and Meester 
with his rod, he solemnly put the first religious question : 



Boer Life, Old and Young. 93 



"Who created the world?" frowning, and speaking in 
a most awful voice, so that poor little Mietje, howling 
and weeping, fell upon her knees before him, and cried 
out : 

"It was I that did it, Meester; but I will never— no 
never — do it again !" 

I am happy to state that Mietje has kept her promise; 
so far as I am aware, she has not yet created another 
world; but she grew up a fine young woman, sensible, 
dutiful, and well-behaved ; many of the young man as- 
pired to be her suitors ; and she is now a good wife and 
mother, keeping house and home for a very worthy hus- 
band. 

Oh, yes ! illiterate rustic folk, the old Boers of those 
days, but not stupid, mean, or base, not false of heart, 
or face, or tongue, and with brains, as well as with eyes 
and hands, for the working and the fighting they had to 
do ; which was done by them, our fathers — never and no- 
where in South Africa by the Englishmen, in clearing 
the wilderness of countless ferocious enemies, wild beasts, 
and more savage tribes of nations living by plunder and 
slaughter, along the frontiers of the Old Colony, before 
and since the English claimed to reign over these lands, 
won by the Afrikanders for themselves and their future 
offspring! I could make the reader laugh again, more 
than enough to his mind, or to mine, over the ignorance 
of Boer school teachers, hired by one or perhaps by two 
neighbor families, to be remunerated at the price, say, 
of a couple of sheep, a quantity of meal, and a few dol- 
lars, for instruction to be finished in two or three months, 
but the chief requirement being that Meester should use 
the rod or the strap with constant severity, to make the 
boys and girls obedient to their elders' commands. We 
have changed all that, you know, under the modern sys- 



94 Boer Life, Old and Young. 



tern of public education, which the Hollanders have estab- 
lished among us. 

Yet further improvements are needful to take the place 
of conditions that formerly existed in this country, and 
which then gave our youth a training now impossible to 
be practiced. When a boy, living on the wide Veld, hav- 
ing been taught, probably, by one of his father's native 
servants, a Bushman or a Hottentot, as I was, to ride 
and to shoot before twelve years of age — when he had 
the luck- to kill his first springbok, to fry its liver for a 
feast, and, driving away the vultures, laid the carcass 
upon his horse and brought it home in triumph — and 
when he was enrolled in the local company of sportsmen, 
horsemen and riflemen, deemed fit to serve at need in 
defense of their country — was that no step of his educa- 
tion? The Boer children, from infancy, could endure 
fatigue, heat, and cold, and rain, storm, wade through 
swamps and torrents, or climb over the rocks. But now. 
here in the Transvaal, the state of the whole country has 
been changed. We are losing the hardy habits of that 
free rustic life. 

There are no more large farms to be got ; the land 
is everywhere occupied, purchased, and settled ; the fron- 
tiers, north, west, east, have been closed against our emi- 
grant "trekkers if a Boer, though he be rich, have sev- 
eral grown-up sons, only for one of them can the farm 
be a livelihood; what shall the others do? What I say 
is, let each of them be properly apprenticed to learn some 
useful handicraft trade, as that of a carpenter or builder, 
cr wheelwright, a smith, or a shoemaker or tailor; and 
if one is clever in higher studies, let him become a doctor, 
a lawyer, or a clergyman ; but let them endeavor to settle 
in the rising country villages, not think of going to live 
in a city. Are they too proud to live in a village? or to 
practice an honest, common trade? I entreat you, Afri- 



Boer Life, Old and Young. 



95 



kander boys and girls, of all sins which ever beset us, 
both myself and you and all mankind, to put down most 
strenuously that of false pride, which covers and fosters 
so many other vicious practices. It is so especially in city 
life, all over the world. This city of Johannesburg, with 
its foreign European habits and examples, is full of moral 
dangers to the youth of our nation. Here strolling idle 
and lounging about the streets, affecting to talk English 
with the strangers, taking bets on the races, tippling 
brandy and smoking cigarettes for hours at the hotel bars, 
staying out late at night, consorting with vile women, 
gambling with cheats and swindlers, the Boer's son may 
run quickly on his road to ruin. What, then, will become 
of the Afrikander nation? If the sons of the old Boers 
should be corrupted and degenerate, what will our people 
be, then, twenty or thirty years from now? Weak and 
worthless, they will have lost their very name, the mem- 
ories of their ancestry, the use of their mother tongue. 
They will be contemned and despised, as an inferior, ser- 
vile race, by the foreigners here, who will have supplant- 
ed them in this land that God gave to our forefathers and 
our fathers. Oh, God ! help us, and save us from that ! 



CHAPTER II. 

WHO ARE THE AFRIKANDERS ? 

The Voortrekkers of 1836, our fathers, were legally 
reckoned British subjects after 1815, although born free 
Dutch citizens. The first King William of the Nether- 
lands, in Europe, then, without consulting the Dutch 
colonists in South Africa, ceded by treaty the dominion 
of the Cape, held by Great Britain for him, as Stad- 
holder, during the war with Napoleon and France, and 
belonging to the former Republic of the Dutch Nether- 
lands United Provinces in Europe. British temporary 
custody, without sovereignty, dated from 1806. Our 
people were free Dutchmen still. 

Our ancestors were mostly the emigrant Hollanders of 
the seventeenth century, w T hose good old Dutch family 
names of the men who had arrived during more than 
twenty years before 1689, are inscribed in the colonial 
archives. A few names of that date are French, those 
of Huguenot Protestant refugees, fiercely persecuted in 
France between 1670 and 1687; an d a * ew Germans from 
the Palatinate, driven from their home by Louis XIV. 
These had been kindly received in Holland ; they became 
almost Dutch people. In 1685, the directors of the Dutch 
East India Company resolved to allow the Huguenots, 
who were so inclined, to accompany their Dutch emi- 
grants to the Cape Colony ; but the first of them were 
with a party of 180 men and women landing on April 
13th, 1688, in Table Bay; among their names is that 
of Du Plessis, which is my own. There are other fam- 
ilies here of that name. Our General Joubert ^also is a 



Who Are the Afrikanders? 97 



descendant of a French Huguenot family. I have the list 
of them all; the great majority of the colonists were 
Hollanders. 

Such are the materials of our Afrikander race ; we are 
descendants of good Hollanders and of the best French ; 
we may, perhaps, still keep in our national character the 
stoutness and sturdiness of the former, combined with 
the swift and daring activity of the latter. And, though 
cur courage be rudely and stubbornly displayed, it may 
have proved not unsuitable to the enterprise of subduing 
and taming the wilderness of South Africa during two 
past centuries; and it may yet, by God's help, preserve 
our national integrity and independence. 

The scene and the situation of the earliest colonial set- 
tlements of white men in South Africa, with the difficul- 
ties, perils and struggles which they had to encounter, 
made their enterprise very different from that of more re- 
cent colonization in some other regions of the globe, such 
as Australia, where a boundless extent of pasture land 
could be occupied without risk of the flocks of sheep and 
herds of cattle, on those vast, open, grassy plains, being 
either destroyed by carniverous wild animals, or seized bv 
predatory tribes of wild men. In Eastern South Africa, 
the most savage, rapacious, restless, and destructive of 
races vastly outnumbered the adventurous pioneers of 
civilization. Geographical conditions must be taken into 
account, and the hostile force of native marauders. 

Below and around the Table Mountain, beginning as a 
band of scanty number, our ancestors gradually multi- 
plied, in two centuries, while they found themselves so 
placed, at the narrow, pointed extremity of the African 
continent, that of necessity, to provide farms and homes 
for their sons and daughters, the Boers must ever in each 
succeeding generation, move up and on and forward ; 
they advanced, then, to the interior vast upland regions, 



Who Are the Afrikanders? 



step by step, organized bands of steady pastoral immi- 
grants coming on in their season ; as inevitably as the 
swarm of locusts hatched in the ground during summer 
arises in October with the first rain, and, turning north- 
ward, toward the sun, wings its multitudinous flight over 
the dry inland plains. But those insects move on to de- 
vastate — our Voortrekkers went forth to occupy for 
European settlements of productive industry and of sober, 
orderly, human family life — to claim and to clear, to use 
and guard for pasture, ultimately to settle and cultivate 
the land. Where else could they go, or what else could 
they do, being at the Cape ? They could not go to the 
west, or to the south, for there lay the ocean; they must 
go up into the interior of the continent, to the north and 
east. 

It was an undertaking of great difficulty, labor, and 
danger. They and their forefathers had, for a century 
and a half already, been struggling frequently to keep 
their farms, their dwellings, their flocks and herds, from 
being despoiled by hosts of savage enemies. It was by 
those Afrikanders, over a hundred years ago, not by the 
troops of the Cape Town Government, whose Kaffir wars 
usually proved ineffective until the middle of this century, 
that the country of the Eastern Province was made safe 
for colonial settlement. Military blunders and disasters 
like that which destroyed half a regiment under Colonel 
Cathcart, in 1835, repeatedly proved that British army 
officers did not well understand Kaffir warfare. Would 
a Boer commander have been surprised by the enemy 
as the British soldiers were at Isandlhwana? 

It must, however, be admitted that there is no fair com- 
parison between the old wars of the Dutch colonial period, 
with native enemies, and those within the past thirty or 
forty years; because the natives formerly had no fire- 
arms, using only their "assegais," or light spears, their 



Who Are the Afrikanders? 99 



hatchets, clubs, and bows and arrows ; on the other hand, 
the "ou-sannas," the clumsy blunderbuss guns then car- 
ried by the Boers/ could not be depended upon. The 
Boers and Dutch colonists have always opposed the sale 
of fire-arms and ammunition to any of the natives ; but 
in the nineteenth century, under the English Govern- 
ment, a great smuggling trade has been carried on, for 
the profit of English manufacturers and merchants; and 
upon some occasions, from 1872 to 1880, as in the case 
of the Basutos, when they were at war with the Orange 
River Boers, it has been officially permitted, causing much 
injury to the Afrikander communities. Thousands of 
muskets and rifles have thus passed into the hands of the 
Kaffir, Zulu, Matabele, and other hostile warriors, against 
whom both English and Dutch colonists are sometimes 
obliged tb contend. 

What I maintain is proved by colonial history, that the 
Boers are the people who have, by their own unassisted 
valor, fortitude, and skill, actually performed the task of 
clearing the interior of South Africa from aggressive, 
formidable, roving, confederate native tribes, whose 
plundering and slaughtering incursions would else have 
made the settlement of European colonists forever im- 
possible; and that the English Government, w r ith its red- 
coat soldiers, could never have done it, and cannot, with- 
out the help of us Afrikanders, do it even now. This 
may easily be proved by the recorded experiences of 
Kaffir warfare during more than a hundred years. To 
this day, indeed, no Kaffir, or Zulu, or Matabele is nearly 
so afraid of an English soldier as he is of a Boer. 

I could relate, without the slightest exaggeration or 
inaccuracy, histories of many prolonged Boer campaigns, 
including that of General Joubert, so lately as 1894, 
against the rebel chieftain, Malapoch, capturing his 
stronghold in the Blue Mountains, west of Zoutpansberg 



l*tfCL 



I CO 



Who Are the Afrikanders" 



— where I served with the Pretoria contingent, under 
Colonel Ferreira — but I will not boast ; only I should like 
this or that Boer action, with an exact description of the 
place, to be compared with any feat of the British military 
forces in South Africa, whatever large regular armies 
were sent against Cetewayo or S<£cocoeni. 

Some Englishmen, who, of course, must be very brave, 
call us "those cowardly Boers." They are welcome to 
think so, and welcome to try it, if they like. Really 
brave men don't call each other cowards until they have 
tried and proved it. We nave never called those men 
so who fell on the heights of Amajuba, or even at Doorn- 
kop. If we nickname the English "red-necks," it is only 
a little famihar ;cke. Whatever v.e are. as G:c has mace 
as; is owing to our birth and ancestry, and to our circum- 
stances and our training from infancy, of which I ^can 
say more. Are the offspring of the Hollanders and the 
Huguenots of the seventeenth century likely to have been 
born cowards? Does the history of Europe show you 
that? And under what circumstances, with what train- 
ing, were even we — the elder generation of our people, 
as Boers 3 sons — brought up to manhood S^p§ hi - Stoathf 
Africa? Here I v.hil only again say, that if the genuine 
Afrikander Boer, such a man as any one of our Voor- 
trekkers was, be different from one of a European nation. 



those past experiences of the youth of many of our men. 
as though they were now present w T ith us at this day! 

Accustomed to a free life, the Trek-Boer is most en- 
tirely himself and in his element, when he can freely 
travel wherever he will over the plains with his ox- 
wagon, and with his herd of cattle, taking his rifle with 
him for shooting, and his horse for hunting. Then he 



Who Are the Afrikanders? 101 



is a happy man, and his wife, too, is a happy woman. 
For when the wagon halts and outspans, she alights and 
has a pleasant time. 

Yes, it is a pleasant hour for the wife of the traveling 
Afrikander, when she gathers some bits of sticks for fire- 
wood and sets her kettle boiling, while her husband goes 
off to shoot a springbok antelope. It is not less pleasant 
for her, she feels, to lead her children to the nearest 
stream of water, that they may wash the clothes. It is 
still more delightful for the children to run around her 
in their play, or climb up the neighboring rocks and cliffs, 
where they can get at the birds'-nests. or to search for 
wood, and to return, each boy or girl laden on the back 
with a bundle of fuel. At night, for the bigger boys, it 
is a pride and pleasure to keep watch over their father's 
sheep, or, with a rifle loaded ready, to guard the tethered 
cattle, lest wolves or jackals should come nigh. On the 
Sunday, how calm and sweet it is in the field-tent put up 
at the side of the wagon ; there sit the father and mother 
and their children, to worship God with prayer and hymn- 
song, and with a reading out of the Bible ! 

Then comes to this wandering family a visitor, another 
Boer, who is trekking the same way. They show him 
hospitality; he talks and tells them how, the night before, 
a lion carried off one of Lis heifers, and asks will this 
friend to-morrow go with him to find and kill the lion? 
Of course the Boer will, but he is glad of his neighbor's 
company, and says to his own wife : 

"Betje, I like this place; don't you? Let ns rest here 
a few days. I'll dig out for you, in the bank of the stream 
here, a small fireplace and an oven, where you can bake 
for us a few bags of biscuit. The children run almost 
barefoot: I'll make for them new shoes of the hide of the 
buck that I have killed. Yonder, over that plain, I spy 
a troop of wild ostriches; I'll shoot two of the finest male 



io2 Who Are the Afrikanders? 



birds. Then, with the feathers, you shall make a pair of 
fans, or whatever you fancy. And there stands a fine 
young sapling, just fit to be the post for a weaving or 
braiding frame. I'll cut out a lot of straps from the 
deer-hide, with which you can braid us new halters and 
harness-ropes. " 

Such was the traveling household — I may call it the 
home — for months of the year, which our fathers happily 
used to inhabit during their long journeys across the 
wilderness, in those experiences of the olden time which 
formed the true Afrikander type of character that is prob- 
ably not yet wholly extinct or effete; and this is worth, 
perhaps, the consideration of statesmen, with reference 
to the policy of suppression or subverting independent 
states and nations consisting of such men! 



CHAPTER III. 



BOER EXODUS FROM THE CAPE COLONY. 

I have often been asked the question, Why do many of 
the Boers dislike the very name of England, and of the 
English, so much as they do? If the question lay in the 
opposite direction, Why do Englishmen hate the Boers in 
the Transvaal, who never injured them? the only possi- 
ble answer is a very obvious one; it is because they in 
the Transvaal have a rich country, according to the esti- 
mation of riches at the present day — a country which 
contains valuable gold fields. It is true that, now, per- 
sons of all nationalities, and persons of no nationality, 
from all parts of the world, can and do help themselves 
to the precious metal in its mines; cosmopolitan roving 
prospectors, Jewish money-mongers, some mere adven- 
turers, after six or seven years, dazzle London as new 
millionaires; but efforts are made by a powerful com- 
bination of finance speculators, desirous of enhanced 
profits, to get control over the law-making and ruling 
establishments of the country, for the sole temporary ad- 
vantage of the gold-mining interest. Mining leases, reg- 
ulations for the employment of Kaffir labor, import cus- 
toms' duties, and railway freights, must be all for the 
Outlanders to determine. It is sought to effect this ob- 
ject by stirring up British national jealousy and pride. 
For the Englishman is proud of his Empire's riches, and 
of its numerous widely scattered pieces of territorial sov- 
ereignty over the remotest seas and lands , of the globe. 
In that sense he is covetous, grudging every other nation 
or people whatever claim of dominion they may have over 



io4 Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 

a gold-field region or a port or possible l arket for trade; 
and he is not very scrupulous of the rights of others, 
preferring indeed to show a studied ignorance of their 
historical and geographical grounds ; whereby the Colo- 
nial Office, especially, thinks to save itself trouble, while 
London newspaper editors, with a conscience yet more 
safe in still greater ignorance, admit the grossest misrep- 
resentations supplied by agents of interested parties. 
Hence, during four or five years past, the renewed at- 
tempts to overthrow the South African Republic; for 
which purpose also the allies of a baffled conspiracy at 
Johannesburg could invoke the vulgar "Jmg°" spirit of 
military vanity, to demand vengeance for the defeat of 
Majuba Hill. 

This is not a very amiable attitude just now on the 
part of England; but since the Boers' dislike of English 
government must be confessed to have arisen nearly 
eighty years ago, and to have influenced three successive 
generations of Dutch Afrikander folk, its causes must be 
indicated here, in events of colonial history, from 1816 
to 1896, and not least abundantly in the middle of the 
century, enough to repel the most friendly disposition. 
Be it then permitted to recount the main facts of ex- 
perience of British misrule, oppression, and inveterate 
persecution of the Boers during this long period ; and be 
it observed that the memory, traditional in each private 
family and in our social intercourse, from the fathers to 
the sons, of such cruel wrongs inflicted upon a people 
by a foreign despotism, is far stronger in the minds of 
a simple pastoral and agricultural community, living a 
sequestered, rustic life in the interior of South Africa, 
knowing and caring little of the affairs of Europe or 
America, than is the remembrance or record of past errors 
and misdeeds committed by governments among the 
restless city populations, with rapidly changing political 



Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 105 

institutions and ideas, of great, highly civilized, modern 
nations. The Boer is charged not only with bigotry and 
obstinacy, but with an unforgiving recollection of past 
injuries. That is no part of his natural inheritance of 
Dutch character ; and I believe that in Europe, and in 
other parts of the world, as it was at New York in the 
seventeenth century, English and Dutch people have 
agreed with each other very well. The wrongs still re- 
sented by the Boers in South Africa would long since 
have been forgotten, if the course of unjust treatment had 
not been so often renewed, and with such insolent con- 
tempt of our earnest protests ; official authority being far 
more solicitous to favor and pamper and flatter the black 
chiefs of savage native tribes, enjoying missionary advo- 
cacy, than to deal fairly with the oldest settlers of the 
white race in the country, with Christian men as worthy 
of respect as those of any civilized nation. 

Slavery, which was abolished at the Cape when it ceased 
in the British West Indies, was certainly never here at- 
tended with any such cruel sufferings as those which 
prevailed on the sugar plantations beyond the Atlantic. 
Dutch slave-owners at the Cape were less unwilling than 
English West Indian planters and merchants to give it 
up, on equal terms of compensation, with effectual pro- 
tection from the pest of vagrancy and continual robbery, 
in which matters they were enormously wronged by the 
British rulers. Under the bad old system of slavery, 
before 1834, alike with English and Dutch and other 
white men, who sometimes abused their power as owners 
and masters, there were cases of excessive punishment 
in the way of flogging. Out of a particular charge of 
this kind, in the neighborhood of Graaf Reinet, in 18 15, 
at the very commencement of the British sovereignty, 
arose, through incidents unhappily following — the accused 
Boer, Frederik Bezuidenhout, being shot dead by a de- 



io6 Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 



tachment of soldiers, upon his refusal to surrender as their 
prisoner — an attempted local insurrection led by the 
brother and other kinsmen of him who had been slain. 
They were speedily overcome by military force, and sixty 
were captured, tried as rebels, six of them condemned to 
death, . others to ten years' penal servitude on Robben 
Island. 

Petitions, formally presented to the Governor, Lord 
Charles Somerset, with signatures representing all re- 
spectable classes and social interests, and private supplica- 
tions for mercy, on the part of numerous friends, neigh- 
bors, or family connections, had no effect. On March 6. 
1816, at a place, near the above-named town, which is 
called Slagter's Nek, the six Dutch farmers, under the 
capital sentence, were brought out to be hanged, with a 
strong guard of troops, in the presence of assembled hun- 
dreds of people, and of weeping women and children. 
The misguided, unfortunate prisoners were all men of 
good previous character and position. Five of them at 
once were to be hanged on one gallows, while the sixth, 
with the rope around his neck, was to stand and see them 
die, and then to undergo the same fate. One of them 
begged permission to hear, and to join with his own voice, 
his friends in the crowd of bystanders, who would sing 
a chosen verse of the Psalms. In answer to this re- 
quest, the signal to the hangman was instantly made ; the 
five men were turned off — but the gallows broke down 
under their united weight ! The grieving spectators then 
imagined it was either caused by a special act of Divine 
Providence, that the machinery of death should fail, or it 
might at least be regarded as a token that pardon, or, at 
least, the sparing of life, should be granted by the min- 
isters of human law. Almost all the people, falling on 
their knees, with prayer and thanksgiving, with sobs and 
tears, awaited the sheriff's decision. In vain — the wives 



Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 107 



and children of those prisoners, rushing forward to lift 
them, lying bound hand and foot, and blindfolded, from 
the ground where they had fallen, were rudely driven 
back ; the gibbet was quickly repaired. They were then 
hanged one after another. That was the memorable af- 
fair of Slagter's Nek, a lamentable beginning of govern- 
ment under the reign of King George III. 

The terrible impression, widely spread over the colony, 
and deeply felt, which was caused by such an act of ex- 
treme severity, became in after years, through continued 
unrelenting harshness, and from the habits and manners 
of the British official aristocracy, showing undisguised 
aversion to the Dutch new subjects, an ineffaceable senti- 
ment of hostility. Few on either side could understand 
the language spoken on the other side ; and the interests 
and wishes of farmers dwelling apart were totally ig- 
nored ; for their rural, homely mode of living, as described 
in our first chapter, attracted no visitors from Cape Town ; 
the English sportsman's taste for hunting and shooting 
wild beasts had not yet been acquired. 

The Boer families, deliberating very cautiously and 
slowly, as Dutchmen have ever done, looked forward to 
an opportunity of quitting their estates, whenever it 
should be practicable to sell them without ruinous loss, 
and moving off into the vacant interior regions, then 
only known to them from occasional reports made by 
elephant-hifhters, though several English missionaries, 
not much esteemed or consulted by the Boers, had already 
gone up that way, to attempt the conversion of some 
native tribes. Still, by sturdily keeping themselves to 
themselves, by eschewing the purchase of English manu- 
factured wares, and disposing of their own produce, 
cattle, sheep, and hides, in yearly bargains with the itin- 
erant wagon-driving trader, rather than by going to any 
market town, the Boers could live, and might have thriven, 



io8 Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 



but for incessant new official decrees and vexatious regu- 
lations, often summoning them to district centres of gov- 
ernment, with long and expensive journeys, to the neglect 
of their home and farm concerns. 

Full twenty years were passed in private discussions, 
calculations, and preparations for the intended migratory 
movement. It was finally brought to a head, and ren- 
dered capable of effective organized action, by a financial 
crisis immediately affecting their own property ; that was 
caused in 1835, by the sudden loss of more than one-third 
of the value of Government bonds, to the nominal amount 
of two millions sterling, payable only in London, being 
the proportional amount of compensation voted by Parlia- 
ment for the emancipation of slaves. Most of those 
bonds had, by some lack of care, it seems, on the part of 
Treasury official agents, and by the absence of trust- 
worthy agency for the Boers, got into the hands of sharp 
speculative forestalling purchasers, who collected the 
money, and afterward contrived to impose upon the 
Boers an immense rate of discount. To the Boer, how- 
ever, whose ownership of slaves might not be more than 
a dozen, twenty, or thirty, working on his large farm, 
unlike the West India proprietor of hundreds on the sugar 
plantation, this loss was not that of the main amount of 
his whole property. If he could dispose of his land and 
homestead, there was nothing to prevent his taking away 
the cattle, sheep, and horses, the household furniture and 
stock of portable goods in his capacious ox-wagons, with 
his wife and family, his servants, hired or apprenticed, 
and carrying all this wealth some hundreds of miles away. 

Local neighborly organization, in committees of the 
elders and heads of friendly families, to form large travel- 
ing parties with mutual aid and comfort, had for months, 
in several districts of the Old Colony, been industriously 
preparing for such expeditions. They were not deterred 



Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 109 



by a rumor that certain official persons at Cape Town had 
propounded a novel legal theory, to the effect that none of 
the King's subjects could leave his dominions, to reside 
beyond them, without His Majesty's permission, and that 
any who attempted to do so would be imprisoned and 
punished. Neither Sir Benjamin d'Urban, then Gov- 
ernor, nor the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Andries Stock- 
enstrom, knew of any such law existing, nor would they 
have recommended the enactment of any such law. The 
legal advisers of Government held the same opinion. 
Something w r as done, however, by some official authority, 
to check the intended emigration. A regulation was 
passed, forbidding any person in the colony to have in 
possession above five pounds weight of gunpowder, or 
ten pounds of lead for bullets, and requiring official per- 
mits for the purchase of any quantity. This was a sly, 
mean, and cruel device, for it was well-known that, be- 
yond the Orange River, the Boers would be exposed to 
all kinds of dangers from different savage tribes, from 
lions, panthers, wolves, and other wild animals, if they 
had no ammunition to defend themselves with. But they 
found a way to evade the regulation, by the aid of their 
friends who were to stay behind, each of whom bought 
what he could and privately handed it over to the Trek- 
Boers, or Voortrekkers, as the first emigrant parties were 
called. 

It was in September, 1836, that the first party of Boers 
started from Albany, led by Louis Treichard, followed 
and joined by another, under Johannes Rensburg; they 
went north, all the way to the Zoutpansberg, and thence 
to the east coast at Delagoa Bay ; nearly three-fourths of 
their number, which had been ninety-eight, perished be- 
fore July, 1839, either being slain by savages, or dying of 
fever; a few survived, in Natal, to be fetched home in a 
miserable condition. The next party, under Command- 



no Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 

ant Andries Hendrik Potgieter, was more successful. Its 
course was directed north of the Orange River, past 
Thaba Ntshu, to the banks of the Vet, where a remnant 
of the Bataung tribe was found, with its chief. Makwana, 
claiming the whole country between the Vet and the Vaal, 
as having been theirs before its recent invasion by the 
Matabele. Makwana, however, was very ready, as the 
price of the Boers' help to repel those ferocious enemies, 
to cede to the white men all that country from which his 
own people had been expelled, since the numbers of his 
tribe were then so much reduced by the late slaughter, 
that they did not want all their former territory. 

This arrangement was, in general, an example of the 
principle, not an unjust or unfair one, upon which the 
Boers consistently proceeded in all their conquests beyond 
the Orange and the Vaal : for the Matabele, a branch of 
the same horde of merely destructive organized warriors 
as the Zulus in the eastern coast region, had absolutely no 
right, and never held any settled beneficial occupation, 
south of the Limpopo, where they had simply desolated 
the whole extent of large countries, slaughtering the for- 
mer population, and making the whole of that vast in- 
terior empty, void, and waste. The Boers came to re- 
dress that enormous injury, to drive back the fierce man- 
slaying, devastating troops of Matabele, and to protect, to 
preserve, the fugitive remainder of comparatively peace- 
able tribes, with whom they made equitable bargains for 
such portions of land as they required for their own use. 
Their advent, in a region that lay then mainly vacant, its 
original inhabitants having been utterly swept away, and 
where no rights of sovereignty or lawful dominion ex- 
isted, was a mission not only innocent, but even beneficent 
— a missionary enterprise in its way, carried into execu- 
tion, however, by other weapons than those of the Chris- 
tian professional preachers, by means of their guns, in- 



Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony, in 



stead of catechisms, by their skill as riflemen and horse- 
men, and by the white man's superior military power. 

It was to be expected, certainly, that the armed Boers 
would have to fight a terrible foe; the South African 
Attila, the wholesale homicide of that region, at that 
period, Moselikatse, the Matabele tyrant, with his drilled 
regiments of spearmen, tens of thousands, similar to the 
Zulus of Chaka, Dingaan, and, in our time, Cetewayo. 

Well, the first encounter took place, in 1836, a short 
distance on the north side of the Vaal, at a place where 
an encampment of one of the Boers' traveling parties was 
surprised by two powerful "impis" or regiments of the 
Matabele, and several families of emigrants w r ere horribly 
massacred. The Boers then retired back across the Vaal, 
to a place since called Vechtkop, and formed a laager of 
fifty wagons, drawn up in a circle, firmly lashed together, 
the opening's closed with thorn-trees. One morning in 
October, 1836, a division of the Matabele army, five thou- 
sand trained and drilled soldier spearmen, attacked the 
Boers in this laager, endeavoring to force an entrance. 
Inside, there were only forty men, all told; but luckily, 
they had spare guns, and the women knew how to load 
them. The assailants were kept off by a deadly fire, and 
fell back ; but only to rush on again. The wagons were 
lashed together too firmly to be moved. Then, finding it 
impossible to get to close quarters, the foremost of the 
Matabele ceased their usual method of fighting, and 
hurled their heavy assegais into the laager. Of these 
weapons, 1,113 were afterward picked up. By that 
means, two of the defenders were killed and twelve others 
wounded. Still, the Boers kept up such a hot fire that, 
in half an hour, the Matabele turned to retreat. Having 
collected all the horned cattle belonging to the emigrants, 
4,600 head, more than 50,000 sheep and goats, and a hun- 
dred horses, they drove these off. Only the horses which 



ii2 Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 



the Boers rode were left within the laager. Potgieter, 
with his little band, followed the enemy until sunset, and 
shot many, but could not recover any of the cattle. 

The families of the farmers were left in great distress 
for want of food. Relief was sent to them by the Wes- 
leyan missionary at Thaba Ntshu, or, through his influ- 
ence, by the Chief Moroko; they were all brought back 
safely to that place. About this time had just arrived at 
Thaba Xtshu, some of the third party of emigrants from 
Graaf Reinet, under the leadership of Gerrit Maritz. On 
December 2, 1836., a general assembly of the emigrants 
resolved on electing a Yolksraad, of seven members, 
Gerrit Maritz, Andries Hendrik, Potgieter, J. G. Bronk- 
horst, Christian Liebenberg, P. Greyling, Daniel Kruger, 
and J. Van Yuuren, to form their Government, with su- 
preme legislative and judicial powers. 

In January, 1837, Commanders Potgieter and Maritz, 
with a force composed of 107 mounted farmers, forty 
Griquas, and five or six Korannas, on horseback, and sixty 
natives on foot, guided by a Barolong chief, Matlabe, who 
had been in the Matabele army, set forth to clear the Yaal, 
marching through a country so desolate that there was 
not one human being to see them and to inform the enemy 
of their approach. The Matabele military camp at Mos- 
ega was surprised on January 17, in the absence of the 
commanding Induna, who was at Kapayin. fifty miles 
away. Ten thousand dark-skinned soldiers, roused by 
the alarm in the separate kraals where they lay, grasping 
their spears and shields, rushed out to combat ; volleys of 
leaden slugs poured upon them from the Boers' long ele- 
phant guns, soon compelled them to fly, leaving about 400 
killed. After setting fire to the huts of fifteen kraals, the 
Matabele soldiers' barracks, Potgieter's commando, of 
which no person, European or native, had even been 
wounded, returned southward, taking booty of six or seven 



Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 113 



thousand cattle, as well as the wagons that had belonged 
to the murdered Boer parties, and releasing three Ameri- 
can missionaries, the Rev. Dr. Wilson, and Messrs. Lind- 
ley and Venables, whom he found living among the Mata- 
bele. He re-crossed the Vaal, and founded a new settle- 
ment in the Orange territory, on the Vet River, giving it 
the name of Winburg, to commemorate this victory won 
in the Transvaal. 

The finishing expedition across th€ Vaal took place in 
the same year, with two divisions, respectively led by 
Potgieter and Piet Uys, mustering together 135 Boers or 
emigrant farmers, accompanied by a few native herdsmen. 
In November, 1837, they found Moselikatse on the Mar- 
ikwa, about fifty miles north of Mosega, with the remain- 
der of the Matabele army. They immediately attacked 
him, and in a campaign of nine days inflicted upon him 
such punishment and loss of military force, that he fled 
away beyond the Limpopo, to the far north, and never 
again returned into the country which he had laid waste. 
The fighting, or rather chasing of the Matabele from the 
Transvaal, extended over a wide space, traversed so 
hastily by many different bands of the far-spread pursu- 
ing force, that no detailed account of it could ever be 
procured. There were various estimates of the numbers 
of the Matabele warriors killed. South Africa had a 
good riddance of them. It is believed that not one of the 
Boers lost his life in the campaign. 

After the final defeat of Moselikatse in November, 1837, 
Commandant Potgieter proclaimed the whole of the ter- 
ritory south of the Limpopo, which the Matabele chief 
had overrun, devasted, and abandoned, to be forfeited to 
the emigrants. This included the greater part of the 
present Transvaal or South African Republic, with fully 
half of the present Orange Free State and Southern Be- 
chuanaland, to the Kalahari Desert westward, except the 



114 Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 



district occupied by the Batlapin — an immense region, 
then almost uninhabited, which must have remained deso- 
late if the Matabele had not been driven out by the Boers. 

By right of conquest, and of the earliest resident occu- 
pation and settlement, and in the absence of a sufficient oc- 
cupying native population, those territories, which neither 
the British nor any other European sovereignty had ever 
dreamt of annexing, became the lawful possession of the 
Boer communities. ■ The political independence of the 
Boer communities, fifteen and seventeen years later, ob- 
tained distinct official recognition. 

On January 16, 1852, at the Conference on Sand 
River, between the British Assistant-Commissioners for 
South Africa, Major Hogg and Mr. C. M. Owen, on the 
one side, and a deputation of the Boers, on the other 
side, headed by their Commandant-General, A. W. _J. 
Pretorius, the convention was made whereby Her Maj- 
esty Queen Victoria "guaranteed, in the fullest manner, 
to the emigrant farmers north of the Vaal River, the 
right to manage their own affairs, and to govern them- 
selves according to their own laws, without any inter- 
ference on the part of the British Government. " 

And on February 23, 1854, a convention was signed 
at Bloemfontein, by which the independent self-govern- 
ment of the Orange Free State was equally recognized 
and guaranteed by Her Majesty the Queen; the title of 
''The Orange River Sovereignty," proclaimed in 1848 by 
Sir Harry Smith, was formally renounced and abolished ; 
and the British flag was removed. Already, in years 
before, the Secretary of State, Earl Grey, had formally 
instructed the Cape Government not to inferfere with the 
affairs either of white men or of native tribes beyond the 
Orange River. 

Two separate Boer republics, legally constituted, have 
since then been recognized as existing in Eastern South 



Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 115 



Africa. It is true that in the more extensive, and for 
some years scantily settled, Transvaal region, some time 
passed before several district communities, which had 
formed small local republics, were finally united under 
the Government at Pretoria ; but there was no pretension 
of British supremacy, during nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury, over either of those two Free States. 

In 1877, when Lord Carnarvon, the Colonial Minister 
in England, had a fancy to create, in imitation of the 
Dominion of Canada, an Imperial British Confederation 
of South Africa under the Queen's reign, it appeared 
needful to that project that the free republics should 
become British provinces. A commission was secretly 
given, in October, 1876, to one Sir Theophilus Shep- 
stone, a Xatal Government agent living with the Zulus, 
a skillful interpreter of Kaffir and other native languages, 
who was supposed to be alone able to manage the for- 
midable King Cetewayo. Shepstone's character, singu- 
larly unlike that of Englishmen in general, though of a 
type frequently met with in Asiatic and in African poli- 
tics, is described by Sir Bartle Frere, in a letter to be 
read on page 304, vol. II., of the biography of that emi- 
nent statesman, published in 1895. How Shepstone con- 
trived, in April. 1877. by taking advantage of temporary 
financial difficulties of President Burgers' administration 
at Pretoria, and of a want of ammunition to finish the 
war with Secocoeni — a want that could easily have been 
supplied by loan from a friendly British neighbor Gov- 
ernment — and by a vague threat of his letting loose the 
Zulu army to devastate the Transvaal — a pretext for de- 
claring the overthrow of the existing republic, despite 
the protests of its President and its Volksraad, every- 
body has long known. 

During nearly four years, the Boers, under the arbi- 
trary rule of Colonel Sir Owen Lanyon, and denied every 



n6 Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony. 



vestige of the political liberties solemnly promised, con- 
stantly and openly renewed, at stated times yearly, their 
demand that the Republican Government, of which Presi- 
dent Kruger was elected head, should be restored to 
them. Memorials, petitions, addresses of complaint and 
remonstrance, signed by nearly all the adult male Afri- 
kanders in that country who could write — immense camp 
meetings, at one of which, in 1879, the High Commis- 
sioner. Sir Bartle Frere. was present — two special depu- 
tations to England, the first in 1877, consisting of Mr. 
Kruger and Dr. Jorissen: the second, in 1878. of Mr. 
Kruger and General Joubert — were treated wi;h official 
scorn. 

Meantime, the refusal of many Boers to pay direct 
taxes to the British Government caused increasing diffi- 
culty of the administration under Sir Owen Lanyon, and. 
finallv, in November. 1880. there broke out an armed re- 
volt ; a brief war. chiefly at Laing's Nek on the road over 
the frontier from Natal into the Transvaal, with morti- 
fying British military failures : peace negotiations in 
March. 1881 : a formal recognition of the independence 
of the Republic ensued in August of that year, again 
confirmed by the existing convention of 1884, now T per- 
fectly valid. 

The Minister who settled that convention in 1884 was 
the late Earl of Derby, then Secretary of State for the 
Colonies in a Government of which Mr. Chamberlain was 
a member. Lord Derby purposely and deliberately omit- 
ted, in that convention, the unmeaning term, ''suzerainty," 
which occurred in the preceding convention of 1881. His 
Lordship, in an official communication to Mr. Leyds, 
diplomatic agent of the Transvaal Government, wrote as 
follows : 

"By the omission of those articles of the convention of 
Pretoria which assigned to Her Majesty and to the 



Boer Exodus from ttie Cape Colony. 117 



British Resident certain specific powers and functions 
connected with the internal government and the foreign 
relations of the Transvaal State, your Government will 
be left free to govern the country without interference, 
and to conduct its diplomatic intercourse and shape its 
foreign policy, subject only to the requirement embodied 
in the fourth article of the new draft, that any treaty 
with a foreign state shall not have effect without the 
approval of the Queen." 

Except with regard to this particular stipulation, which 
President Kruger's Government has never sought to in- 
fringe, the South African Republic is lawfully and right- 
fully as free, among the independent nations and sov- 
ereign states of the world, as the Federal Republic of 
Switzerland in Europe. Apart from the specific engage- 
ment here cited, British "paramount supremacy" over 

ler of the two Dutch Afrikander republics has no 
other meaning than the possession of superior military 
power. 



CHAPTER IV. 

AN ENGLISHMAN'S NOTION OF THE BOERS. 

Hatred between nations — or between two parties of 
one nation — would not exist without an originating 
cause. Mankind are like unto each other, so far as that 
they live together on the same earth, and enjoy together 
all natural rights. Why, then, must it be that malice or 
discord should arise in the hearts of the Boer and the 
Englishman, the one against the other, where the width 
of a continent affords room for several communities of 
people to live .and to thrive, side by side? There are 
but two large rivers, the Orange and the Vaal, whose 
course, as well as the mountain ranges and the high level 
of the Veld, might seem to indicate lines of separation; 
but such natural features of the land could not be the 
cause of nations being hostile to each other. It may be 
that the repugnance, if it does exist, is one rather of 
class than of race ; but if it came from differences in our 
habits of life, it would have been confined to those per- 
sons on each sicle who are in close contact with, and 
constantly meeting, the people on the other side ; whereas 
it appears that the English who most loudly denounce 
us are those least acquainted with us ; indeed, the Boer 
with due self-respect does not much court their acquaint- 
ance. At any rate, his way of living at home with his 
own family would seem to be his own private affair, and 
he is not obliged to consult foreigners with a view to 
social and domestic improvements, nor is it at Johannes- 
burg that he would seek the most approved instruction 
and pattern. 



An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 119 



In exposing but a small portion of the actual wrongful 
English doings for so long a period of time, which go to 
account for whatever animosity may exist in Afrikander 
minds toward English, the positive cause has been found 
to have been the conduct of English Government officials, 
whether Colonial or Imperial, upon occasions, and in 
public transactions, whereby great injury was done to the 
independent Afrikander communities. Only part, and 
not the worst part, of those unjust proceedings is men- 
tioned in this book, dealing with the facts which relate 
to our acquisition of the Transvaal, and our right to hold 
it as freemen. The history of British usurpation of what 
the Boers had fairly gained in the Natal territory, and 
in the Orange River territory, by their arrangements, in 
exchange for substantial services performed by them, 
with the existing native rulers, and with due regard to 
the interest of the weaker or broken tribes, is a study 
not very creditable to English statesmen. 

You will find that the party of Boers led by Piet Retief . 
when they had acquired, by their contract with Dingaan, 
territory on the Natal side of the Drakensburg, indus- 
triously set to work upon it, cleared and tilled their lands, 
made that country habitable for white men, and built 
their town of Pietermaritzburg, named after their two 
leading men. They elected a Volksraad, which began 
to pass laws for their government. Great Britain at that 
time, -in 1838, had no mor* sovereignty than Portugal 
even on the sea-coast of Natal. But the English Govern- 
ment at the Cape determined to take away from the Boers 
that country which they had fairly earned and had pre- 
pared for the settlement of Afrikander farmers. A ves- 
sel of war and detachments of soldiers were sent to seize 
upon Natal ; the first pretext for quarrel with the Boers 
there, was their refusal to obey an order that they should 
give up their arms and ammunition, with which they 



ISO An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 



had just defeated the Zulus. They were forced to yield, 
after some fighting, and in 1842 Natal was annexed to 
the British dominions. Most of the Boers, quitting their 
lands in Natal, passed northward into the Transvaal, and 
settled along the Mooi River, where, in 1849, the town 
of Potchefstroom was founded, again combining syllables 
of the names of their best men. 

You will also find that, in 1848, after another part of 
the Boer emigrants, between the Orange and the Vaal, 
had purchased of the Korannas and other native tribes, 
by honest barter bargains, what lands they wanted on the 
Vet, Modder, and Riet, and as far to the southwest as 
near Fauresmith, for their own settlements, the Cape 
Town Governor, Sir Harry Smith, issued a proclamation 
declaring all the country north of the Orange to the 
Vaal, and to the Drakensburg, to be Her Majesty's do- 
minion of, what he styled, "The Orange River Sover- 
eignty/' Taking possession of the towns of Bloemfon- 
tein and Winburg, a British resident, Major Warden, 
began to domineer over the Boers; these asked help of 
Andries Pretorius, Commandant-General in the Trans- 
vaal. He came with an armed force to Winburg, and 
drove the English officers away. Then Sir Harry Smith, 
collecting a mixed army of regular redcoat soldiers, the 
Cape Mounted Rifles, drilled Hottentots, Griquas, Fin- 
goes, and mongrel natives, encountered Pretorius and the 
Boers in the battle of Boomplaats. It was a stiff and 
obstinate fight, in which the Boers were defeated, partly 
on account of their ammunition failing. The British 
sovereignty beyond the Orange River, after six years, 
was voluntarily withdrawn. But, in 1870, ten years 
later, the diamond-fields district was stolen from the 
Orange Free State. The British Government would not 
give it back. Compensation in money, the sum of £90,- 
000, was eventually paid. 



An Englishman's Notion of tlie Boers. 121 

I am well aware that there are many, very many, Eng- 
lish as good, as honest, as true-hearted as men of any 
nation. I know, by experience, that if you have done a 
good turn for an Englishman he will never forget it ; he 
will be always seeking and trying to requite your benefit. 
When once you have made an Englishman your friend, 
rely upon him as a faithful comrade ! Even in London, 
I am well aware, there are English gentlemen who de- 
test and speak against the conduct of the prevailing Eng- 
lish interest here, with regard to the rights of the Afri- 
kanders. That was shown in the House of Commons, 
in the debate upon the question whether Rhodes ought 
to be punished; more than seventy — I think seventy- 
seven — out of four hundred members, voted for the cen- 
sure of him. Honor to the men of that minority ! What 
a pity it is, now r , that the majority of Englishmen are not 
of such a disposition, and in politics the men who think 
and know better wall vote with the majority against their 
own principles, and in despite of truth ! 
- Here, my readers, in this Golden City of Johannesburg, 
lives a good old gentleman, an Englishman, who is my 
own particular old friend. The other day, when I had 
reckoned up and written down, and shown to him a list 
of fifteen notorious bad instances, recorded in our Afri- 
kander history, of the shameful behavior of the English 
u red-necks" to us and our fathers, the reading of it over, 
as you may well suppose, put him a little out of temper. 
Then he said, in our Boer language, which he can talk 
well enough: "Ah, yes! but only just now, for once, let 
me tell you wdiat have been the faults of your people." 

"Good!" said I; "come on with it then, but mind that 
you speak the truth !" • 

He promised that he would. But first he would make 
me promise not to tell anybody his name if I was going 
to repeat anything of what he w r as going to say. 



122 An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 



Well, I gave him that promise. Then he began, as if 
He had been in England, with his, "Look here!" 

"No, no!" I cried out; "not a word of English! That 
won't do for me. You know I don't like it." 

"Well, kijk hier!" says he, which I know is all the 
same; and then he goes on, talking as we Boers do, not 
precisely as the Hollanders who come here do. 

"Sixty years ago," my Englishman says, "jullie oude 
Yoortrekkers, your old emigrating Boer leaders, moved 
off out of our colony. And what was it you went about 
for to do? And how did you go about for to do it? I 
ask you as a man, now, in what sort of a way? Why, 
sir, you ran like a v pack of rogues. Never once even 
thanked Her Majesty's — or, no, it was His Majesty's 
then — Government, you didn't, for all the gracious bene- 
fits, and all that sort of thing, you had enjoyed under 
their glorious reign. Do you call yourselves a civilized 
people ? They made off, those old Boers, with their 
wagons and their spans of oxen, and they had got their 
'ou-sannas/ their old flint-lock, long guns, and smuggled 
powder and lead, with which they went up, over the 
Orange River, and swept the whole of that land clean. 
A very fine country, and they got it all for nothing ! And 
that happened just at the very time when our Kingdom 
of Great Britain was just almost getting ready for us to 
go up and take possession of that very identical land- 
just when we were all busy with teaching our young 
Englishmen to learn how to ride a horse that wasn't 
broken in, if they ever do, and how to shoot with a rifle 
at something alive and running half a mile away. And 
it was just then your Yoortrekkers chose to go across 
the Orange and* the Yaal Rivers and over the mountains, 
and take away all that chance from most of us English- 
men ! 

"Why did you not consider, you Boers, that English 



An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 123 



young gentlemen, of good families at home in England, 
are perhaps nearly twenty years of age before they are 
taught to ride and to shoot in the way your sons do? 
They have so many other things to learn, cricket and 
football and Latin at school, and lawn-tennis at home, 
and at the university, rowing and Greek. Your little 
boys run barefoot; they can sit a horse when they are 
live years old ; a boy in his tenth year can shoot as straight 
as a grown-up man. It is not fair play between us and 
you. When I remember how the Boers went all over 
South Africa, and killed nearly all the large animals, so 
many years ago, leaving almost nothing of such game for 
English sportsmen now, I feel it is an injury enough to 
make the best-tempered man angry, if any nation in the 
world ever suffered wrongs from any other nation. 

"And then, besides that, over and above, how you have 
outwitted us in our South African politics for many a 
long year past! There was your old General Pretorius, 
in 1852, at Sand River, got two of our clever men, Major 
Hogg and Owen, to sign a convention, to set up a Free 
Transvaal Republic, at w r hich the English nation is still 
angry to this day. 

"So, in one way and another, you Afrikanders have 
been getting the better of us, and getting hold of all the 
best chances before us, catching up the most desirable 
territories, by Jove, under our very noses. And you had 
the impudence to stand up at Boomplaats, and shoot at 
our noble, brave, fine British soldiers, and to kil 1 some 
of them. Your Voortrekkers, a gang of runaway Boers 
out of our colony, were the men who did that. Isn't 
it enough to make an Englishman's blood boil in every 
vein of his body? 

"And now, further, in these days, what do we see of 
your people setting themselves up to practice all sorts of 
business that in former days no Afrikander would ever 



124 ^ n Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 

have pretended any right to do ? It makes us indignant, 
sir, when some Afrikanders, who have never had a 
learned education, call themselves even doctors, and seem 
to be just as clever as our doctors who have studied in 
Europe. And their sons and daughters, too, are now- 
taking up various trades and arts and skilled industries, 
to practice in the towns here, working just as well as our 
people. Only look at your young women, they were 
never taught proper dressmaking and millinery. Our 
English young ladies have to be apprenticed five years 
before they can make a dress. But Afrikander girls do 
it, and others are confectioners, or keep bakers' shops, 
while their brothers are in business as milkmen or butter 
merchants ; or, in the country, they get a piece of land 
and cultivate tobacco. The Boers of the old times used 
to know their proper position, and never meddled with 
those trades or industries.. Xow the Boers in the coun- 
try are so stuck up that if any laboring men of our 
people go out to seek work on their farms, and find em- 
ployment, they must eat in the kombuis, the kitchen, and 
must sleep in the wagon shed. And the Boers nickname 
them 'Red-necks,' or 'Reddies,' or 'Old Jacks,' or 'Bundle- 
men/ and the like genteel, respectful names; even your 
children call them so. Must not we English hate you 
for that? 

''And it provokes us still more that you Boers are a 
people who never had any proper teaching in your youth, 
but, in some respects, you are cleverer than we are. 
Look now at old Uncle Paul Kruger, and be blowed to 
him! — a man who can but just read and write! He has 
to deal with our cleverest men — Chamberlain, Sprigg 
and Rhodes — and the fact is, he can twirl them round 
his thumb. And the Hollanders and others say that old 
Kruger is the ablest of living statesmen ! How do you 
come to stand so high in the world? What right have 



An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 125 

you to set up a mint to coin money in the Transvaal of 
your own gold, and to stamp it with old Kruger's head 
upon the sovereigns? Isn't that contrary to the lav;? 
And your gold coinage is of higher value in exchange 
than the English pounds sterling, though it is really of 
the same metal and weight. Isn't that an affront that 
ought to be punished? 

"And what did you do at Majuba Hill? Look there! 
Sir George Colley was on the road from Natal; what 
right had Joubert to stand in his way, and to stop our 
brave soldiers on their march, and to slaughter them ? 
The public high-road is free for everybody to pass, and 
there our men were shot down by hundreds, by fellows 
like you Boers! Why, now I think of it, Du Plessis, I 
believe you were one of them— you were there yourself!" 

"Oh, yes, certainly; I was there!" 

"Aye, so I thought ; and you took part in it when 
Joubert so unmercifully drove our Highlanders off the 
top of the Spitzkop, After that, our leading and ruling 
men thought of another plan for dealing with the Trans- 
vaal. Sir Evelyn Wood, or some one, got the idea that 
if they gave the country, for a time, back to those stupid 
Boers, and let them try again to govern it by themselves, 
if they made old Paul Kruger President, he would soon 
get all its affairs into such a mess and muddle that the 
Boers would be only too glad to ask the British Govern- 
ment to take charge of the Transvaal again. But how 
we have been deceived and disappointed! Now seven- 
teen years have gone by, and there sits President Kruger 
still, with his Government, as firm as a rock, in this year 
1898. At last, over two years ago, the English and other 
Outlanders here, along with Cecil Rhodes and some great 
men in London, laid a plan to amend this state of things. 
What was the end of it ? Your murdering Boers go out 
and fall upon Jameson, at Doornkop, when he and his 



126 An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 

men were fatigued by their journey, fight them and take 
them all prisoners, and put them in jail ! The Boers took 
away from them all their property — guns, wagons, don- 
keys, ammunition, everything they carried. Then, to 
spite us more, and to disgrace us, old Kruger lays hold 
of our foremost men in this town of Johannesburg, the 
richest and the most respected, claps them in prison at 
Pretoria, puts them on trial as criminals, and several of 
them are sentenced to death. When we think of all that, 
which was unlawfully done, is it any wonder that the 
hearts of Englishmen crave ample vengeance ? We feel 
sometimes as if we would shatter your Boer Government 
with a blast of dynamite! Our indignation is just. 

"Meanwhile, don't you see how it still goes on here? 
The Dutchmen come here from Holland, and the Ger- 
mans come here, and other nations, people who are con- 
tent to live here under your four-color republican flag; 
but we Englishmen, sir, are not content ; for we say that 
you Boers, all of you, ought to this day to be under 
Her Majesty's flag, because, without ever thanking the 
British Government, and without a passport to quit its 
dominion, you were never free to go, but you chose to 
run away. And so, and now, I ask you as a man — now, 
between our two selves, I ask you, old fellow — is it not 
right for us to hate your nation ?" « 

Well, reader, you see that I let my old friend the Eng- 
lishman say in full all that he had to say about it. I 
listened patiently all the while he said it. After that, I 
had to give him my answer. 

"I have heard what you have to say, my friend, and I 
must admit that the facts are mainly true, but I never 
before considered that they were fair grounds for the 
hatred which Englishmen feel toward us. One remark 
you have made, perhaps from your bad memory of things 
which are disagreeable to you, is what might be set down 



An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 137 

a great falsehood; if any other man was to say it, I 
should call it a lie to assert that our Voortrekkers, 
and the Boers to this day, have never thanked the 
British Government for its treatment of us. I say 
that we Boers have six times come out. and thanked 
the British Government! You will understand how and 
when, for Til tell you where they did it The first time 
was in 1848, at Boomplaats ; the second time, almost 
thirty-three years later, was at Bronkhorstspruit ; the 
third time, you know, was at Laing's Nek; the fourth 
at Schuinshoogte ; you have recollected the fifth, at Ma- 
juba Hill; and the sixth, at Doornkop, not very long ago! 
As for the wrongs and offenses you say were done to 
England, by us, or by our fathers, did you never hear 
the fable of the wolf and the lamb? 

"The lamb, you see, was quietly drinking at the stream, 
when the wolf came to drink of it, a little higher up, 
'What do you mean by it, you' nasty little beast?' says 
the wolf ; 'you are puddling all my water, stirring up the 
mud, fouling the stream while I drink/ 'Sir/ the lamb 
answers him, 'how can that be? Surely this water is 
running down to me from you/ 'Ah, hum, ha !' the wolf 
begins again ; 'it was something else that I had to say to 
you. I haven't forgotten what happened yesterday, when. 
I was hunted by those dogs ; there was your father, show- 
ing the dogs where I lay hidden/ The lamb, in great 
surprise at this accusation, says, 'It must be a mistake, 
sir: for my father was killed by the butcher a twelve- 
month ago/ 'Well/ says the wolf, 'if it wasn't your 
father who did it, then it was your mother, which is all 
the same/ 'My mother!' cries the innocent lamb; 'I 
believe that she died on the day after I was born/ 'I 
don't care/ the wolf says in conclusion, 'which of you 
it was that did me wrong, for I know that all your family 
have always hated me; so now I am going to eat you 



128 An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 



up!' Which the wolf proceeded to do; just like Great 
Britain's way of dealing with the Afrikanders!" 

Sorry am I to regard the English nation, in its political 
and official actions toward my own people, and in the 
conduct of many of its representatives in South Africa, 
as our ancient, inveterate enemy, arrogant, covetous, un- 
scrupulous, aye, shameless and insolent, in practices of 
iniquity to our hurt and damage. We have done no 
wrong to that old enemy, but here he is again. Because 
it turns out, of late years, that this country north of the 
Vaal, which has been ours for half a century, includes 
rich gold fields, he will not allow our Republic to stand 
any longer. "We English," he says to himself, "are a 
proud and powerful imperial nation, and we like to feel 
that our empire contains more wealth than any other 
dominion in the world. We will not be troubled or hin- 
dered by any moral scruples ; let us annex that rich coun- 
try, for there is no power in South Africa to prevent 
us. By hook or by crook, we must become its masters, its 
lords and proprietors; we must have the Transvaal for 
our own." 

Of the hook and the crook, in different past and pres- 
ent devices to bring our country under foreign dominion, 
there is yet more to be related, and I fear that some more 
will yet be soon attempted ; we must still be on our guard, 
against it. I would not, however,, speak unjustly of that 
nation, which has vexed us so often and so long. There 
are in England, no doubt, many good and upright Eng- 
lishmen ; and here, too, there are some, but these are a 
minority, so far, of my English acquaintance here. I 
do know a few of them who agree well with the Boers ; 
and some, even, who take the Afrikanders' cause to heart ; 
some even who cherish, with true republican sympathy, 
the best wishes for the liberty and prosperity of our 
State, and who might, if the law of our State permitted 



An Englishman's Notion of the Boers. 129 

it, be worthily elected members of the First Volksraad. 
But the minority of such good and true men cannot with- 
stand the wrongful designs of the majority, or of the 
most powerful moneyed men among the Outlanders, in 
league with Rhodes and his associates elsewhere, whose 
avarice and ambition seek their further aggrandisement 
from the ruin of our Free Commonwealth here in the 
Transvaal. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE TRANSVAAL GOLD FIELDS. 

So early as the year 1877, and yet earlier, gold had 
been found in the territory of our Republic, but not 
enough to be worth the cost and trouble of extracting 
or collecting it. At the date of the pretended annexation 
to the British dominion, April 12, in that year men 
were already busy on the Lydenburg gold fields to gather 
the alluvial ore. The late President Burgers had caused 
a thousand pounds weight of it to be coined into money 
stamped with fiis own portrait. But the gold fields could 
not then yet be said to be a paying concern. It was £ 
dead, unprofitable business at that time. 

A wonderful change took place here after our War of 
Freedom in 1881. The gold fields' industry revived, 
slowly at first, but in 1884 those of Barberton were 
discovered with better success. On the mountain since 
called the high Duivel's-Kantoor-Berg — the Devil's Of- 
fice Mountain — more especially, alluvial deposits of gold 
were abundant. The Barberton quartz reefs were found 
to be auriferous about the same time. Before long differ- 
ent companies began to bring in crushing batteries on 
wagons drawn by teams of oxen, traveling on roads 
worse than a "baboon path" in the forest. They had to 
encounter great obstacles, and the machinery which ar- 
rived was of the most wretched description, and in the 
most impaired condition. Nevertheless, Barberton soon 
got ahead in this business; laws and regulations for the 
working of the gold fields were decreed or enacted by 
the South African Republic. Next year came more 
astonishing changes. 




DR. LEYDS. 



The Transvaal Gold Fields. 131 



The gold fever infected many of our burghers. Four 
of them, named De Villiers, Du Plessis, and two brothers 
Struben, in 1885, found a small patch of gold in the Wit- 
water's Rand. Those gentlemen began and continued to 
work that place, until they at length discovered the min- 
ing reef, at present well known, close to the site upon 
which Johannesburg has since been built. The primitive 
"banket" or cake reef was seen there with portions of 
it sticking up above the surface of the ground. Eagerly 
and confidently they inferred that those ugly rocks, those 
"Vraatjesklippen," as our people had called them in de- 
rision, were full of gold. The rumor spread like a blaz- 
ing fire which proceeds from a kindled spark. There 
was an amazing rush to the Rand in 1886; when digging 
was proved to pay the field of operations quickly ex- 
tended to where Boksburg and Krugersdorp are now 
situated. 

At the beginning, on the Rand, the working camp near 
the auriferous reef above mentioned, consisting of a few 
straw or reed huts, was called Ferreira's. Afterward 
the Government, by order, created a new village town- 
ship, high up, which received the name of Johannesburg. 
Somewhat later were formed the townships of Boksburg, 
Krugersdorp, Florida, and Maraisburg, all along the 
Rand. 



CHAPTER VI. 

JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA, 

The foundation of Johannesburg has been noted. In- 
credibly rapid was the progress of this and other towns 
on the Rand in 1887. European speculators and in- 
ventors, with plenty of money or credit, arrived at the 
gold fields' capital. The costliest machinery was im- 
ported, while j yet it could reach Johannesburg only by 
ox-wagon carriage. Business, industry, and trade were 
speedily developed in the next two or three years. It 
was marvelous to behold, in 1890, how the town had 
grown up, with grand buildings, well laid out streets, 
and agreeable avenues of trees, which seemed to flourish 
in the air of the Rand. The exchequer of the State 
was filled with money from the taxes and mining rents, 
The Republic established its own mint. Railways began 
to be constructed ; telegraph wires stretched to right and 
left along the city ; over both Johannesburg and Pretoria, 
the lines of telephonic communication were like cobwebs 
suspended aloft. Till 1895 these visible signs of activity 
and material improvement went on increasing. More fine 
buildings were, erected, five stories high, costing thou- 
sands of pounds; the streets were rendered more com- 
modious. The value of imported machinery was enor- 
mously augmented. The railway from Cape Town, by 
Kimberley, to Pretoria, was extended to the Golden City, 
about forty miles, and was connected with the Natal rail- 
way ; the stations also were much improved. 

The market at Johannesburg is a wonderful sight, in 
a city but ten or twelve years old. Our respected chief 



Johannesburg and Pretoria. 133 



market superintendent, the Herr Smuts, with six sub- 
ordinate masters, deals fairly with the Boers and the 
townsfolk ; thousands of pounds daily pass through their 
hands ; from early morning to eleven o'clock about two 
hundred wagons come into the market-place. All South 
Africa seems to have dealings there. A hundred horses 
are daily bought and sold. Cars, wagons, beasts are 
continually passing. People jostle each other walking 
on the side pavements. Bicycles flit along the street. A 
tramcar line traverses the whole city. Numbers of Arab 
or Indian peddlers go about with their little trucks full 
of things for sale, or with boxes or trays hung at their 
breasts; Jews carry bundles of their own wares; fish 
dealers, with sounding trumpets, drive noisily along; 
children, boys and girls cry the newspapers which they 
want you to buy; never was there such a bustle in a 
South African town. 

Johannesburg was ruled at first by a Local Sanitary 
Board or Committee, which, however, took upon itself 
to do more than it had a right to do, and some things 
that were illegal. Complaints of this having been made 
to Pretoria, the Government was obliged to supersede 
the Sanitary Committee by nominating a City Council, 
under the control of a Burgomaster, and Mr. J. Z. de 
Villiers was the first Burgomaster appointed. There are 
four Landrosts, or magistrates, whose offices are every 
day full of business. The postmasters and telegraph 
office clerks are numerous, working day and night. 

The habits of the Johannesburg population are such as 
might be expected in a town of gold-seekers and gold- 
spenders, not like the poetic ideal of the pastoral golden 
age. A multitude of speculators in shares may be ob- 
served to hang all day around the Stock Exchange. 
Betting on the races is a favorite diversion ; horses con- 
tend for the sweepstakes monthly; tickets are offered for 



134 Johannesburg and Pretoria. 

sale ; the losses and gains on a race may amount to a total 
of £100,000. Saloons, bars, and canteens are open at 
every street corner; you might count hundreds of 
drunken men. On Sundays it is curious to see the Kaffir 
laborers, who come into town from the gold mines ; some 
of them wear long-skirted black frock coats on the Sun- 
day; every one may have a purse full of money in his 
trousers' pocket. In numbers, about half the population 
of Johannesburg is native African. The Boers, who visit 
the city on week days to make purchases at the shops, 
have well-filled purses, of course, and do not spend all 
their money. 

Pretoria, the capital of the South African Republic, 
the seat of Government, is adorned with the finest Gov- 
ernment building that exists in South Africa. The Kerk- 
Plein, with its palatial edifices, has an imposing aspect. 
The streets at night are illuminated by electric lights, as 
in any European city. The President seems to reign 
here like a king, while he is recognized by all the world 
as an eminent statesman. There is a million sterling in 
the Government Treasury. A hundred clerks are em- 
ployed in the Government offices. The Executive Coun- 
cil, and the members of the Volksraad, are upon a foot- 
ing equal to that of the Senators and members of the 
Chamber in any European State. Pretoria fashionable 
society puts on, of course, an air of metropolitan dignity, 
regardless of the vulgar rich prodigality of Johannes- 
burg, shown in various amusing ways; and not least by 
the haughty elegance of the manner in which ladies hold 
up their heads, as their carriages drive by you, in the 
evening on the way to the opera, or to a concert ; but I 
am not competent to describe the habits of fashionable 
life. As for politics and government, my attention must 
just now be confined to Johannesburg, where I dwell 
and see a good deal. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE FOREIGNERS' REVOLUTIONARY PLOTS. 

The scandalous plot to overthrow our Republic was 
concocted and prepared from June, 1895, to the end of 
December, as is abundantly proved, by Cecil Rhodes,, 
with his allies, Phillips and Beit, and others, but it had 
been secretly contemplated by some of them at the time 
of Sir Henry Loch's visit there a year before. It was 
covered by the programme of what they styled "The 
National Reform Union" at Johannesburg, and by the 
manifesto, of menacing tone, which expressed more than 
the avowed purport, with demands for certain measures 
not altogether bad in themselves, but requiring due in- 
vestigation, prudent legislative council, and mature de- 
liberation on the part of the State Government. 

Its commencement began to be apprehended by those 
who could perceive that something was covertly going 
on at the Rand, about the middle of the year 1895, 
Already in the month of June, among, a section of the 
Outlanders, there seemed to be a screw loose in the fabric 
and machine of social order. But nobody at first could 
exactly detect the place where it was, or the tendency of 
agitation in the political workings of Johannesburg senti- 
ments and designs. It was to be remarked, however, that 
Sir Henry Loch, who is now Lord Loch, had been there 
in June, 1894. He had visited the Rand gold mines, and 
could not enough, at a great meeting of the English here, 
express his admiration of their boundless riches. He 
made particular inquiries. About the same time, Mr. 
Lionel Phillips wrote a letter, suggestive of the intended 



136 The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 

action, to Mr. Alfred Beit at Cape Town. Then appeared 
Mr. Charles Leonard, as President of the "English Na- 
tional Reform Union. " Its meetings were invariably 
conducted so as to foment disaffection to the Government 
of the South African Republic. But the political agita- 
tion was stirred up rather under the surface of that re- 
form question, secretly and softly, for several months. 
Some uneasy apprehensions of the real purpose of its 
managers were entertained, and were discussed even by 
Dutch journalists, but nothing was yet discovered. So 
it went on till December; then arose more alarming ru- 
mors. Our President was on his official tour through 
the Transvaal. He was attending a meeting at Bronk- 
horstpruit; there he received messages of such urgent 
import that he was obliged hastily to return to Pretoria, 
for suddenly the Government of this State found itself 
beset with difficulties and perils, the gounds of which 
could scarcely be discerned. 

The dictatorial manifesto of what styled itself "The 
National Reform Union," composed of a few thousand 
foreigners or "Outlanders," of diversified nationality, but 
mostly English-speaking, resident in the one city of Jo- 
hannesburg, and belonging to the gold fields class inter- 
est, was actually issued at Christmas, 1895, signed by Mr. 
Charles Leonard, with the appointment of a public meet- 
ing to be held on January 6, for the discussion of re- 
forms, as though peaceable and lawful actions only were 
intended. But secretly, during months before, large sup- 
plies of warlike weapons and stores had been collected 
in the town, and preparations had been made for an 
armed insurrection, to be aided by Jameson with the 
Chartered Company's and other British military forces. 
I was at Johannesburg, not with those who were sent out 
to repel the attack made by Jameson. The condition of 
the city in those days is what I then personally witnessed. 



The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 137 C 

There was a feeling of much anxiety toward the end 
of December on account of the multitudes of unemployed 
Kaffir mining laborers and others, who came in from the 
Rand, and thronged the streets of the town. It was 
feared that they would turn to robbery and violence. 
Householders began to form associations for. mutual pro- 
tection, and plans for looking after those people, reliev- 
ing temporary distress, controlling and removing them, 
were proposed. At the same time much inconvenience 
and confusion accrued from the arrival by cheap railway 
excursion trains of extraordinary numbers of holiday- 
making visitors from the neighboring States and colonial 
provinces; on the other hand, business in Johannesburg 
being very slack or suspended in the Christmas week, 
many families of the inhabitants went to visit their 
friends elsewhere. The scenes at the railway stations in 
this neighborhood were remarkable; the trains were 
crammed, especially w ith women and children ; some pas- 
sengers took their seats many hours before their train 
was to start ; some who had bought first-class tickets had 
to get into a second or third-class carriage, or even into 
a cattle truck. They suffered much discomfort, and the 
traffic fell into disorci^r, but it was not till January 2 
that the terrible railway disaster happened at Glencoe, on 
the Natal line, where thirty people were killed at once 
and many were badly hurt, some of these dying soon 
afterward. 

No resident at Johannesburg at that time can have yet 
forgotten the sad spectacle of the bringing in of those 
lifeless and mangled victims of the railway accident. 
Among those who publicly deplored it with tears and 
cries of grief was Mevrouw Kruger, the good old wife of 
our worthy President. He, too, a few weeks later, in 
beholding the miserable effect of a calamity still more 
dreadful, that of the tremendous dynamite explosion on 



138 The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots, 

February 19, 1896, among the railway trucks at the 
Johannesburg station, in visiting the hospital and attend- 
ing the subsequent funeral of seventy-two dead people, 
could not refrain from weeping, though few men have 
more self-command. Oom Paul has a tender heart. 

On the 29th of December, 1895, Johannesburg was ex- 
cited by a very different cause of alarm. Hundreds of 
people were escaping from the city by every railway train 
and some were running away on foot; they were fugi- 
tives going to seek any place of safety in the wide world ; 
no one cared to abide by his employment or business. 
The window's and doors of the grand shops, offices 
and warehouses were closed up with thick planks, 
nailed as strongly as it could be done in such haste; 
the banks were shut up. Chests and bags of money 
were sent away by railroad to various destina- 
tions. Tumults, fights and riots being feared, the police 
were ordered to close every drinking saloon, and the bars 
of the restaurants and the hotels ; this order was enforced 
by the English townsmen, as well as by the officials of our 
own Government. Some families belonging to our com- 
munity left the city. In the streets and market-place 
roamed bands of Kaffirs, to the number of several thou- 
sand. All was in confusion, with terror and uproar, 
dreading some instant peril of the townspeoples* lives 
and property. 

Commandant D. Schutte, under whose orders I was, 
summoned every man to get ready, and to report himself 
for duty at the police stations. The order was that all 
who stood on the side of the Government of our Republic 
should come forward afid present themselves for its serv- 
ice, and great was the need already, but next day, the 
30th, it was no longer a secret ; the Englishmen had risen 
in arms, and had in fact "annexed" the city. Thousands 
of Outlanders, to whom rifles and ammunition had 



The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 139 



quickly been dealt out from some concealed stores, were 
standing ranked together on their mustering ground. 
About 500 men of a new police force, appointed by the 
heads of the English faction, occupied the streets. It 
seemed as if Johannesburg belonged to the men of that 
nation, as if it had been captured by a foreign enemy. 
They had, during more than a twelvemonth, been smug- 
gling in chests of firearms and of warlike stores, under 
false descriptive labels, with several Maxim guns, and 
they had field artillery on the road to the Transvaal. On 
this day we saw a military camp formed outside the town, 
with tents erected there, on rising ground to the north- 
west, where they were digging to throw up ramparts for 
a kind of fort or batteries. 

The situation of Commandant Schutte, in charge of the 
city for the Government of our State, was extremely diffi- 
cult. Some of his countrymen unjustly accused him of 
cowardice. I judged quite differently of his conduct, 
which I think was very discreet and prudent ; but he and 
his officers, Van Damme, Robberts and Bosman, did all 
that good and brave men, under the circumstances, could 
do. We, the Afrikander burghers, were very much ex- 
cited, and were indignant because we were not at once 
furnished with rifles, as we saw our friends the Hol- 
landers and Germans allowed to carry them. I confess 
that I myself h&i stolen one from the Commandant's 
office ; I was going to get some cartridges, and I would 
then have shot any of our own policemen who turned 
rebel, but God prevented me. The rifle was taken from 
me by Lieutenant Robbertz.oon. It was better so, for in 
half an hour, at the first shot fired, there would have 
been fighting all over the town, and what would have 
happened to the thousands of defenseless people- — to the 
women and children? Early in the morning, Command- 
ant Schutte and the Mines Commissioner, Van der 



140 The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 



Merwe, came to us at the police barracks, and spoke to 
us very calmly and firmly, explaining why it was not ad- 
visable immediately to give us arms, but they assured 
us that if there were a conflict we should all be well 
armed. Most of the burghers were contented with this 
promise. Whether our leading men already knew, at 
that hour on December 21, of Jameson's inroad, I am 
not aware ; but for us burghers it was very disagreeable 
to stay without weapons, amidst thousands of rebels and 
enemies who were fully armed, especially after we heard 
of the fighting at Krugersdorp. 

In the meantime, at Johannesburg, in the city, the 
enemy for several days had it all his own way. Our own 
policemen were disarmed and withdrawn from the 
streets, confined to their barracks, to avoid a conflict. 
The Hollanders and Germans stood faithfully by our 
Government ; of the latter nearly 800 men, under their 
own officers, were in arms, briskly drilling, while the 
Hollanders, posted nearest to the English camp — the Eng- 
lish hate the Dutch here like the plague — kept watch over 
the railway station, which was likely to be first attacked. 
They very cleverly made a fort of railway trunks, which 
they could well have defended. At the Government build- 
ings were the magistrates, Landrosts, and Mines' Com- 
missioners, attending to their business. The Yeldt-Cornet 
having disappeared, J. de Millon was appointed in his 
stead to rule at Johannesburg. As the day went on, Jan- 
uary 1, we heard various rumors of the result of the 
Krugersdorp fight the day before. We could see the 
camp of our rebels from the town; there seemed to be a 
great bustle and movement amongst them, with carriages 
driving to and fro. At ten o'clock I went up to the mar- 
ket-place. In the surrounding streets arose a great com- 
motion, which I heard, and thought myself not very safe 
there ; but when I turned back I observed that in front oi 



The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 141 



almost every house looking toward the outside of the 
town Englishmen were standing at the door with spy- 
glasses or telescopes, looking at their camp and along the 
western road toward Krugersdorp. At the door of the last 
house were two old "red-necks'' gazing in this manner at 
the fort. I quietly got behind them and heard them say, 
"Dr. Jameson is coming !" It was the first time I had 
ever heard of Jameson, and I did not understand what 
it meant. But I clapped as loudly as I could with my 
two hands on the legs of my breeches to startle them, and 
I cried out in an alarming voice, "The Boers are com- 
ing !" Would you believe it? I tell you, my reader, that 
those two English red-necks instantly ran indoors, one 
of them dropping his spy-glass and leaving it on the 
ground, while I walked on homeward. I was only a little 
afraid that they would send a bullet after me, so I walked 
away rather fast. 

The position of our Government was such as to render 
it not easy to contrive and execute the measures for de- 
fense. If you know that a burglar is trying to break into 
your house, you may not know exactly where and how 
the entrance will be effected. Orders were hastily given 
to the Commandants and Field-Cornets to call out the 
burghers and bring them upon the roads between Kru- 
gersdorp and Johannesburg. But nobody who knew the 
ways of our old chief enemy could doubt that the whole 
of our territory and all its frontiers would be in danger 
of invasion. Forces were therefore assembled to move 
in different directions. Around the City of Gold Miners, 
Johannesburg, our commanders soon occupied the posi- 
tions of best advantage, ready for whatever should take 
place. On January 2, the presence of Jameson's troop 
of banditti was known to all the country. But our com- 
manders had to deal at once with that nest and breeding 
place of rebels or foreign foes of the State, which was in 



14? The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 



open insurrection. To the south lay the forces of Com- 
mandant D, Weilbach encamped against it. Other bodies 
of our troops approached it on different sides. The vet- 
eran commander Piet Cronje, one of the heroes of the 
War of Freedom in 1880 and 1881, had again taken the 
field, and was to gain the fresh honor of seeing English- 
men lay, down their arms at his feet. 

Jameson's defeat and surrender at Doornkop, on Jan- 
uary 2, cast all our enemies into great perplexity. 
Their idolized dictator, Rhodes, who had three days be- 
fore telegraphed to London, "I shall win, and South 
Africa shall belong to England," was far distant. Presi- 
dent Kruger had got Jameson and Willoughby and the 
other English officers locked up in jail. The clever advo- 
cate, Charles Leonard, head of the National Union of 
Outlanders, had fled to Cape Town. The stores of pro- 
visions for an expected siege to be withstood at Jo- 
hannesburg, immense quantities of grain and herds of 
cattle, had been confiscated by the lawful Government. 
Its military and police forces again held possession of the 
city. The revolutionary rule was past; its duration, was 
as many days as the years of British usurpation in the 
Transvaal, from April, 1877. Next came Sir Jacobus de 
Wet and Sir S. Sheppard, to convince the revolutionist 
leaders that they had better give up all their arms to 
Oom Paul, who had signified that he would take them, 
otherwise, within twenty-four hours. The Government 
proceeded to vindicate the lawful authority of the State 
by arresting over sixty of those persons, instituting a 
prosecution for treason and committing them to prison. 

Their trial was held in the large Market Hall at Pre- 
toria; the chief of the Bench of Judges was Advocate 
Gregorowski, an eminent lawyer of the Orange River 
Free State, whose impartiality could not be questioned. 
Sixty-four prisoners were brought before the judges and 



The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 143 

a special jury. They took it coolly, and all pleaded guilty. 
The Chief Judge, addressing them with great propriety, 
sentenced to death four of them, namely, Lionel Phillips, 
Colonel Francis Rhodes, J. H. Hammond and George 
Farrar, according to law; a fine of £5,000 was imposed 
upon each of the others. These sentences were confirmed 
in due course by the Executive Council of State. 

Now came petitions, numerously signed, begging for a 
commutation of the death sentences. Some were from 
our own burghers, others by cable telegraph beneath the 
sea, and by land from different provinces of South Africa 
came asking our Government to spare the lives of those 
four men. Tender-hearted ladies personally visited our 
President, imploring his mercy. Ah ! it was the same 
in the year 18 16, with the British Government of the 
Cape Colony, when the seven Afrikanders who had risen 
to avenge the murder of Oom Freek Bezuidenhout by 
the soldiers were doomed to the gallows at Slagter's Nek. 
Petitions were sent then to Cape Town ; wives and children 
knelt imploring that those men's lives might be spared; 
but it was all in vain. Now, after eighty years, while 
sons and grandsons had grown up to take the place of 
their fathers of the two nations in South Africa, but the 
same God was living as He is living still, Who sees all 
the deeds of all generations of mankind, here was their 
situation reversed. Oh, England! noble, powerful, re- 
nowned Great Britain! hast thou any feeling of national 
remorse and repentance? See what was done on our part 
in 1896. 

Our President, after a few days, commuted the capital 
sentences to a fine of £25,000 each. Be it observed that 
all these condemned criminals were actually millionaires, 
to whose wealth that sum is like a drop in a bucket of 
water. When the joyful news was communicated to them 
by the keeper of their prison their gloom was changed 



144 The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 



for gladness. The money was instantly paid, and they 
went out free. The tears of those who mourned over, or. 
who dreaded their impending doom, became tears of joy. 
See now the true character of the great man you Eng- 
lishmen hate and revile, President Kruger! A horri- 
ble crime had been perpetrated against him as the ruler 
of the State and against his nation. It was all in his 
power to let the extreme punishment be legally inflicted. 
But his noble-minded, Christian, humane, forgiving dis- 
position was inclined not to make the guilty suffer as they 
deserved. Not "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,'' 
is the motto of a good man ! By this example of benevo* 
lent clemency, you will say, the President showed to all 
the world he is a wise statesman. Yes., and I will say 
that this example, compared with that of your Governor 
in 1816, has put the English nation to shame! 

The released prisoners went to the President's house, 
thanked him very heartily, and returned the same even- 
ing to Johannesburg, where doubtless they were festively 
treated with champagne. All were freed except two ob- 
stinate gentlemen, named Sampson and Davis, who re- 
fused to sign a memorial asking for their release. They 
remained in the jail until the Jubilee Day of Her Majesty 
the Queen of England, when, generously to them and in 
honor of Queen Victoria, the President set them free. 

Some months before the conspiracy and rebellion of 
Johannesburg, President Kruger said, in a conversation 
about the extension of the franchise to Outlanders, or 
their admission to the burghership of the South African 
Republic: "Something is bound to happen before that 
can be settled, by which, perhaps, the chaff will be sepa- 
rated from the grain, and we shall then be able to see 
what men there are to whom the franchise can be in- 
trusted, and who are the men not safely to be allowed to 
possess and use it." 



The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 145 



This has indeed been the course of our political affairs. 
By the Johannesburg treason plot and Jameson inroad 
that part of the population of the Transvaal was sifted, 
or winnowed, so that it could be seen on which side the 
Republic or its enemies, the contents of that district 
would be likely to fall in. The Transvaal, indeed, is a 
strange country, with a very strange mixed population. 
For the sake of its incalculable supposed mineral riches 
of all kinds, but especially its world-famous gold mines, 
people of diverse races and classes have come from every 
quarter of the globe. They get a better livelihood here 
than they did in the places which they have left; some 
may not go home, but stay here for good. Thus, in a 
very short time, over 100,000 people have arrived. Of 
these newcomers there are, besides Afrikanders of other 
colonies and provinces, Hollander Dutchmen, Germans, 
French, English, Scotch, and Irish, Australians, Ameri- 
cans, and Jews of every nationality. Those Outlanders 
soon desire to obtain in our Republic the same privileges 
of citizenship and of political self-rule that we have. 
From one point of view their claim is quite fair, since 
they have brought in the capital and skill for undertak- 
ings which have filled the State Treasury, that was empty 
before. That is well and good; but the question for us 
is, How far can they yet be trusted with political power 
in our State? They dwell among us, undisturbed, and 
enjoy full protection under our Government; why should 
they desire more? If they get the franchise, what will 
they do with their votes? 

I know what the Englishmen here will do with their 
votes ; they will elect Cecil Rhodes for President, or some 
other Englishman, and then we know this our country, 
so dearly purchased for us by the toil and sweat and blood 
of our fathers, will belong to our old enemy — to England. 
That only will content them, as he and they have said. In 



146 The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 

my mind, therefore, while our Government ought, the 
sooner the better, to reform the electoral law, never 
should an Englishman, remaining one of that nation, have 
a vote in our State affairs. Treat them justly, on an 
equality with all others, in what concerns their personal 
and private interests; let them be protected by our Gov- 
ernment as well as ourselves ; but, seeing what is the 
character and political tendency of the English element, I 
should be inclined to say, Never give them the vote ! 

As for other Outlanders, we must look at each nation- 
ality and each class to see how they are likely to use the 
franchise. Of the Hollander Dutchmen it may be said 
that they are a little too proud and self-conceited, and for 
that, I am sorry to observe, most of the Afrikanders do 
not much like them. But who is without any faults ? and, 
for that matter, if a man has no pride or good opinion 
of himself, it is perhaps, in some cases, because he knows 
that he is good for nothing. It is mistaken and 
perverse on our part to detest the Hollanders. I am con- 
vinced, and I can prove it, that they have been, in many 
respects, the benefactors of this country. And mind this, 
the Hollanders will never betray us ! With the Germans 
I am not so much acquainted; but the men of that nation, 
upon the occasion of the Johannesburg conspiracy., 
showed by their acts that they could well be trusted. 
They were, in fact, as President Kruger has foretold, so 
winnowed in the sieve as to be proved good sound corn. 
We have, then, from that trial been able to distinguish 
three sorts of men in this country, namely, the Afrikan- 
ders, the Hollanders and the Germans, who are trust- 
worthy to possess the franchise. Our Government 
showed directly afterward that* it was disposed to treat 
the lately arrived Outlanders reasonably, and allowed 
more than 1,500 of them to obtain the right of voting. 
If the Englishmen, on the contrary, rather fell into a 



The Foreigners' Revolutionary Plots. 147 

backward position in the State it was their own fault or 
that of their leaders. 

I may add one more observation regarding the Afri- 
kanders in the Cape Colony. At the last election for 
President in otir Republic grossly injurious statements 
were made to disparage our highly esteemed General 
Joubert They came from certain Colonial Afrikanders 
opposed to him, who are believed all to be Dappers ( strict 
"Particular Baptists"). It was said that, if he became 
President in the Transvaal, all the clerkships in our Gov- 
ernment offices would be filled with Bovenlanders (per- 
sons coming from the old settled agricultural districts 
around the Paarl, Wellington and Worcester, to the norths 
east of Cape Town, between the Cape and Zwaartberg 
mountain range). Never take heed of such idle rumors 
and notions! I have observed the Bovenlanders with 
particular attention ; there is no truth in it. And I have 
been amongst hundreds of the Cape Colony people, at a 
time of almost revolutionary excitement. I can truly 
bear witness that those Afrikanders showed themselves as 
stanch and faithful to their alliance with our own State 
as the "Vaalpensen," the born Transvaalers, themselves 
can be. Never did I meet with a single one of them who 
sympathized with the English Imperial Annexation 
Party ! 



CHAPTER VIII, 



NATIONAL HYMN OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC 

(Adapted from the Hymn of the Orange Free State*) 

Men of Transvaal, we bid you raise 
A people's voice, a hymn of praise, 

To God, Who set you free! 
Who led our fathers to this land, 
Who bade this nation take its stand, 

Here, in just liberty! 

We pray Thee, God, this State to keep, 
Firm on its rock-foundation deep, 

Here, from the stranger freed! 
Our Burgher counsel bless and guide, 
That they may carefully provide 

For all the public need ! 

We also pray, Eternal Lord! 
Thy gracious help to him afford, 

Our chosen President ! 
Who bears a task, which never can 
Be well performed by any man, 

Except Thy aid be sent! 

And now, Transvaalers, to this land, 
Its laws, its President's command, 

Its Volks-Raad! Burghers all! 
Your hearts 5 best wishes shall ye give! 
Your patriot service, die or live! 

Not your Republic fall! 



Brief History of the Transvaal 
Republic. 

By CHARLES T. BUNCE. 



A BRIEF HISTORY 



OF THE 

Transvaal Republic. 



CHAPTER L 

' EARLY HISTORY. 

The history of the Transvaal Republic properly begins 
with the earliest settlement of Cape Colony, as the Boers 
were emigrants from that place. 

Herodotus mentions the fact that the Phoenicians sailed 
around the Cape of Good Hope about 600 B. C. History 
records nothing further concerning it until the year 1487, 
when a Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, landed 
there. Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape ten years later, 
in 1497. 

The first real settlement at the Cape was made by the 
Dutch East India Company in 1650. The Dutch settle- 
ment was augmented by Germans, Flemings and Portu- 
guese, and in 1686 by a large number of Huguenots who 
had fled from France on account of religious persecu- 
tions. The settlements were, of course, at first confined 
to the coast, but as the population became more numerous 
the interior regions were slowly penetrated, and the native 
tribes reduced to slavery or driven further inland. 

The slavery question has always been a disturbing 
factor in South African affairs, as will be seen in the sue- 



Early History. 



ceeding pages. Its introduction was simultaneous with 
the earliest settlements, and its extinction has been one 
of the most difficult of tasks. 

In 1795 ^e first serious revolt occurred, an attempt be- 
ing made to free the colony from the dominion of Hol- 
land, and establish a republic, This effort was brought 
to naught by the arrival of a British fleet, sent by the 
Prince of Orange, in whose name possession was taken 
of the colony. The British rule continued until 1802, 
when the government was restored to Holland. 

In 1806 the British again took possession, and the ter- 
ritory was formally ceded to England in 181 5. 

The population at this time was mainly Dutch. The 
name Boer (or farmer) was generally applied to them, 
as they were mainly an agricultural people. 

As was natural, the permanent establishment of British 
government was followed by the influx of a large number 
of Englishmen. It is said that fully 4,000 arrived in the 
year 1820 alone. 

With the advent of such a large number of people of 
a different race and language, began that long struggle 
between the two races which has been the cause of so 
much bloodshed and strife, culminating in the present 
war. 

The Boer's temperament is phlegmatic, and agriculture 
is his chief occupation. The English, on the other hand, 
are active, aggressive and enterprising. 

The Boers had built up a system of their own, and the 
changed methods introduced by the English were a source 
of constant dissatisfaction to the slow-going Dutchmen. 

The Boers had always considered the negroes as in- 
ferior beings, created for their especial benefit as slaves. 

One of the first acts of the English was to emancipate 
all slaves in 1833, 

Another serious cause of dissatisfaction to the Boers 



Early History. 



153 



was the retrocession to the Kaffirs of the territory which 
had been taken from them and annexed to the colony e 
The Boers had hoped to occupy these lands. Moreover, 
they were dissatisfied at the inadequate compensation 
given to them for the slaves that had been taken from 
them and restored to freedom by the Emancipation Act. 
Payment was tendered in the form of paper payable in 
London, which could only be converted into money at 
the Cape at a ruinous discount. It is now generally ad- 
mitted by the English that the Boers were unfairly treat- 
ed in this matter. 

These grievances led to the first general movement of 
the Boers to the interior, commonly known as the "Great 
Trek." Their object was to establish at some remote 
point an independent government, where they might be 
free to act as they desired, and to re-establish slavery. 

In 1835, Ae first bands, led by one "Triechard of Al- 
bany," crossed the Orange River. Other bands rapidly 
followed, and the colonies of Natal and Orange Free 
State received their first settlement. 

In leaving Cape Colony, the Boers took occasion to 
issue a Declaration of Independence couched in the fol- 
lowing language : 

"We quit this colony under the full assurance that the 
English Government has nothing more to require of us, 
and will allow us to govern ourselves without interference 
in future." 

A form of government was then established by them 
in Natal. 

In 1840, Governor Napier issued a proclamation deny- 
ing their right to form an independent government, even 
beyond the border of the Cape Colony. 

Constant encounters with the Kaffirs and other savage 
tribes rendered their lives in this new country anything 
but a bed of roses. Peter Reteif, one of the most promi- 



154 



Early History. 



nent of the Boer leaders, was treacherously slain in one 
of the many conflicts with the savages. 

Depleted in numbers, and harassed by the natives, a 
small British force which was landed in the Natal terri- 
tory had no difficulty in forcing a majority of the Boers 
to acknowledge British sovereignty. Some, however, 
"trekked" in the direction of the Vaal, and refused to 
submit to British rule. 

No sooner had the English acquired a foothold in 
Natal than they freed all slaves held by the Boers, which 
so incensed the latter that a large number moved inland 
to join those who had made the first settlements. 

In 1848, the Cape Government having proclaimed the 
entire territory up to the Vaal River as British territory, 
another advance was made on the Boers, and a force un- 
der Governor Smith defeated them near Bloomplatz, in 
the Orange River country, and they were again reluc- 
tantly compelled to acknowledge British rule. 

Undaunted, however, a large body of the Boers massed 
under the leadership of Andrus Pretorius, a valiant man 
who had repeatedly offered effective resistance to the 
British. They moved to the regions beyond the Vaal 
River, and then laid the foundations of the present Trans- 
vaal, or South African Republic. 

During the years 185 1 and 1852 the British became in- 
volved in hostilities with the powerful, savage tribe of 
Basutos, and Pretorius, seeing his opportunity, made over- 
tures for the acknowledgement by the English of the in- 
dependence of the Transvaal. He was successful in this 
project, and on Jan. 16, 1852, the famous convention of 
Sand River was concluded, by which the Boers living 
beyond the Vaal were given the right to establish a gov- 
ernment, and to make their own laws, except that slavery 
was to be prohibited., 

In 1854, a further convention was concluded at Bloem- 



Early History. 



155 



fontein, by which the independence of the Orange Free 
State was granted by England. 

Thus, after nearly twenty years of removal from place 
to place, with constant encroachments by the British, and 
continuous trouble with the natives, the Boers had ap- 
parently achieved their wish at last, and having been 
granted the rights of independent government, it seemed 
probable that they would have no further troubles, and 
that they would be permitted to pursue their agricultural 
lives free from interference — a peculiar people, apart 
from, and not like to, the rest of the world. 

But the slavery question, and events as yet unthought 
Of, were destined to disturb their peace and quiet in the 
coming years, and lead up eventually to one of the most 
stubbornly resisted wars of the century* 



CHAPTER II. 



THE FIRST REPUBLIC. 

Although the independence of the Transvaal Republic 
had been duly acknowledged by England, the government 
which was established was by no means a perfect or sat- 
isfactory one. In fact, there were four separate and dis- 
tinct states in the Transvaal — Potchefstroom, Lyden- 
burg, Utrecht and Zoutpansberg. Each claimed supreme 
power, and each was jealous of any centralization of gov- 
ernment. There was a sort of concurrent jurisdiction and 
at least a pretense of a general government, but it was 
not until i860 that anything approaching a real union was 
materialized. The "Volksraad," that peculiar legislative 
body, the privilige of election to which is one of the prime 
factors in the present war, had already been organized. 
In 1858 this body enacted the "Grondwet," or funda- 
mental law, which is the basis of the present body. Mr. 
M. W. Pretorius, son of the valiant Andreas, was finally 
elected President, and by 1864 all the Boers of the 
Transvaal had acknowledged his authority and position 
as head of the State. 

It was about this period that Paul Kruger came into 
prominence. He was the leader of an armed force that 
was endeavoring to oppose the claims of one of the "act- 
ing presidents" of the Republic — a certain Schoeman. 

These factional fights were of constant occurrence, and 
were wagered with great bitterness and animosity, until 
the final installation of Pretorius as a President accept- 
able to the majority. This condition of semi-guerilla 
warfare has its counterpart in the formative history of 



The First Repnblic. 



157 



nearly every nation on the face of the globe; therefore* 
it is evident that the Boers were neither worse nor better 
than others in this respect. It is estimated that the pop- 
ulation of the Transvaal at this time was about 30,000 
whites, and an almost innumerable host of blacks. 

As has been mentioned in previous pages, the hatred 
between the Boers and the blacks was mutual and in- 
tense. Constant warfare was the natural result. The 
Boer persisted in his old-time doctrine that the black 
man was fit only for slavery or extermination, and the 
savage, naturally, objected to this system, showing his 
feelings by a massacre or an insurrection at every pos- 
sible opportunity. 

. Add to this the fact that the occupation of the Boers 
was almost wholly farming, and that money was a very 
scarce commodity, and it will readily be seen that taxes 
were not liable to flow into the treasury in any large 
amounts. Many of the people absolutely refused to pay 
any taxes, and the Government, being thus crippled for 
lack of funds, and burdened with continuous warfare, had 
a severe struggle to maintain its existence. In fact, one 
of the leading characteristics of the Boers as a people is 
their desire to get along with as little government as 
possible. 

In 1871 President Burgers succeeded President Pre- 
torius. The new head of the Government was in many 
respects different from his predecessor* An able and 
conscientious man, his main acts seemed to have been 
prompted by a desire to cultivate peace with England, 
to reduce the number of conflicts with the natives, and to 
advance the standing of his people by the introduction 
of modern improvements and the betterment of the school 
system. 

He effected a loan from the Cape, which relieved the 
financial troubles of the Republic, and expended nearly 



158 



The First Republic. 



all of his private fortune and exhausted his eloquence in 
an unsuccessful attempt to secure the construction of a 
railway to Delagoa Bay, the seaport nearest to the bor- 
ders of the Transvaal. 

This effort was vigorously opposed by the English, who 
viewed with alarm the possible consequences of the ac- 
quisition of a direct road to the sea by the Transvaal, It 
might possibly mean the future purchase of the seaport 
from Portugal by the Boers, and lead to the Transvaal 
becoming transformed from an inland Republic to a na- 
tion with a navy. 

Meanwhile the people were making strenuous efforts 
to extend the boundaries of the Republic to the north 
and west. This policy, of course, meant more wars with 
the natives — which sometimes resulted favorably to the 
Boers, and frequently adversely. 

The chief among these conflicts was one against the 
Bechuanas. The Boers assailed the blacks, who were 
under the leadership of a powerful and cunning chief 
named Sikukuni, and were thoroughly beaten in a great 
battle, in which 1,400 Boers participated. This crushing 
defeat, accompanied as it was by strong menaces by Cete- 
wayo, the warlike leader of the Zulus, who threatened 
the southern border, led to serious reflection and consid 
eration of the situation by the Boers. 

While it is true that the Boers were in serious danger 
from the inroads of the now thoroughly aroused savages 
on their borders, the English colonies — especially Natal 
— were in no less danger. 

Under these circumstances the English Government 
resolved to act, possibly seeing at the same time a favor- 
able opportunity to once more bring the coveted Trans- 
vaal region under the British flag. 

Accordingly, Sir Theophilus Shepstone was sent out 



The First Republic. 



*59 



from England with power from his Government to annex 
the Transvaal and garrison the country with British 
troops to hold the natives in check; should he deem it 
advisable. His commission was dated October 5, 1876, 
and countersigned by Lord Carnarvon, Colonial Secre- 
tary, and was sent to Sir H. Bulwer, Governor of Natal, 
who was instructed to hand it over to Sir Theophilus. 
These facts should not be lost sight of, as it is often as- 
sumed that it was at Sir Bartle Frere's direction that Sir 
Theophilus annexed the Transvaal. At that time Sir 
Bartle was not Governor of Cape Colony, or even in 
South Africa, the Governorship of the Cape being in 
the hands of Sir Henry Barkly. On receipt of his in- 
structions, Sir T. Shepstone started for Pretoria, which 
town he entered on January 22, 1877, having traveled 
from the frontier with an escort consisting only of 25 
Natal Mounted Policemen. On his way he was favorably 
received by a portion of the people ; at Pretoria his entry 
was made the occasion o^ general rejoicings. On the 
afternoon of the 26th of the same month (January, 1877), 
Sir Theophilus had an interview with the Boer Executive. 
It is at this time that the name of Paul Kruger first 
comes prominently forward in an official character. Sir 
T. Shepstone, in his official report, writes that he ex- 
plained to the Executive that the object of his mission- 
in view of the disturbed state of the country — "was to 
confer with the Government and people of the Transvaal, 
with the object of initiating a new state of things, which 
would guarantee security for the future. " 

"Mr. Paul Kruger," adds Sir T. Shepstone, "who is a 
member of the Executive, and the only opponent of Mr. 
Burgers for the position of President, did not object to 
the discussion of the causes which are said to produce 
insecurity or inconvenience to neighboring states or gov- 
ernments, but positively declined to enter upon the dis- 



160 The First Republic. 

cussion of any subject that might involve in any way the 
independence of the State as a Republic. " 

After nearly three months' inquiry, Sir Theophilus was 
convinced that the only cure for the manifold ills from 
which the Transvaal suffered was annexation by Great 
Britain, and accordingly he issued a proclamation to the 
effect on April 12, 1877. President Burgers and Kruger 
protested against this annexation, but the signatures of 
a majority of the Volksraad being obtained, the annexa- 
tion was an accomplished fact. 

Sir Theophilus reported to his Government that the 
petition for annexation was signed by 2,500 Boer voters 
out of a total of about 8,000. This is probably a fair 
estimate of the sentiment of the Boers regarding the 
annexation. The majority in the Volksraad in favor of 
this step was not a fair representation of the sentiment 
of the majority of the people. Nevertheless the act was 
accomplished. April 12, 1877, the first Transvaal Re- 
public ceased to exist, and Great Britain assumed the 
administrative functions of the Government against the 
will of a majority of the people and against the protest 
of President Burgers. 



CHAPTER III. 

TO MAJUBA HIU. 

Under the peculiar conditions which enabled England 
to annex the Transvaal, it was apparent that dissatisfac- 
tion and discontent would soon manifest itself. The 
Boers were accused of having previous 1 }?' made overtures 
to other European nations, notably Germany, Belgium 
and Portugal, looking to the establishment of a protec- 
torate by one of these powers. There is no reason to 
doubt but that this was done. Such a proceeding would, 
however, have interfered seriously with the Briton's 
dream of a united South African federation under a 
colonial government similar to that of Canada, and this 
was probably the motive that led England to so readily 
and speedily espouse the cause of the Boers (incidentally 
annexing their territory as quickly as possible). It came 
cheap, and they "needed it in their business." 

The Boers were not slow in making a strong protest 
against the seizure of their country. Paul Kruger and 
Mr. Jorissen proceeded at once to England to lay a 
vigorous complaint against the British Government and 
endeavor to secure a reversal of the annexation. Sir 
Shepstone had not been idle, however, and Mr. Kruger's 
protest was met by a memorial from a portion of the 
Boers approving the annexation. This well-executed 
move gave England an ample opportunity to reject Mr. 
Krugers protest with a show of justice, on the ground 
that it did not represent the sentiment of his people. 

Sir Shepstone's action was duly approved by the Brit- 
ish Government. 



l62 



To Majuba Hill. 



England was now pledged to maintain her authority 
in the country ; she was also bound to see that the prom- 
ises of local self-government were fulfilled. Unfortu- 
nately, the outbreak of a native war on the eastern frontier 
of Cape Colony prevented Sir Bartle Frere, the then 
Premier, from going to Pretoria, as he had intended, in 
September, 1877, and no sooner had that trouble been 
overcome than the far graver question of war with Cete- 
wayo and his Zulus forced itself to the front. The hands 
of the British authorities were full, and the reforms prom- 
ised to the Transvaal burghers were not granted. This 
gave encouragement to the disaffected among the Boers, 
especially as the British did nothing to prevent many 
Transvaal farmsteads from being destroyed and their 
occupants murdered by the Zulus. 

While he deplored his inability to immediately remedy 
the State of affairs at Pretoria, Sir Bartle Frere did not 
for a moment waver in his belief that England must be 
the dominant power in South Africa. Writing to Lord 
Carnarvon, on August 10, 1878, he said : 

"You must be master as representative of the sole 
Sovereign Power up to the Portuguese frontier on both 
the East and' West Coasts. There is no escaping from 
the responsibility which has been already incurred ever 
since the English flag was planted on the Castle here. 
All our real difficulties have arisen, and still arise, from 
attempting to evade or shift this responsibility." 

Meantime matters in the Transvaal were not going 
well. The Boers were full of complaints; some of them 
well grounded. But their great grievance was that the 
British Government had failed to give them protection 
against Sikukuni and against the Zulus. This had been 
one of the chief reasons which had induced them to ac- 
cept annexation. A second deputation to England, com- 
posed of Kruger and General Joubert, fared no better 



To Majuba Hill. 



163 



the n the first, and once more it was affirmed that it was 
impossible that the Queen's sovereignty could be with- 
drawn from the Transvaal. This assurance w T as conveyed 
to Messrs. Kruger and Joubert in a letter dated August 
6, 1878. It was written by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, 
who succeeded Lord Carnarvon as Colonial Secretary. 

Sir Garnet Wolseley was appointed High Commission- 
er, and went straight from Zululand to the Transvaal 
in September, 1879. He at once began to destroy any 
illusion which the Boers might have about retrocession. 
On his way up he made the emphatic statement at a 
public dinner at Wakkerstroom that the Transvaal would 
remain British territory '^^^Jomrj^ A 
few days later, finding two of the Boer leaders inquiring 
for a reply to a memorial on the subject, General Garnet 
issued a formal proclamation, of which the following was 
the essential clause : 

"Now, therefore, I do hereby proclaim and make 
known, in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, the 
Queen, that it is the will and determination of Her 
Majesty's Government that this Transvaal territory shall 
be, and shall continue to be forever, an integral portion 
of Her Majesty's dominions in South Africa.'' 

A still more striking declaration was made soon after- 
ward by the High Commissioner, at a banquet given 
to him at Pretoria by the friends of the British admin- 
istration there. Referring to an idea which was then 
being propagated that a change of Government in Eng- 
land would lead to a change of policy. Sir Garnet Wol- 
seley said : 

"Nothing can show greater ignorance of English pol- 
itics than such an idea. I tell you there is no Govern- 
ment, Whig or Tory, Liberal, Conservative, or Radical, 
who would dare, under any circumstances, to give back 
this country . . . under no circumstances whatever 



164 



To Majuba Hill. 



can Britain give back this country. Facts are stubborn 
things. It is a fact that we are here, and it is an un- 
doubted fact that the English Government remains, and 
remains here." 

It is at this point that Mr. Gladstone's influence as 
head of the Ministry began to be felt for the Boers. In 
the campaign of 1879 he gave utterance to the following 
sentiments : 

"In the Transvaal we have chosen most unwisely — I 
am tempted to say insanely — to put ourselves in the 
strange predicament of the free subjects of a monarch 
going to coerce the free subjects of a Republic, and 
compel them to accept a citizenship which they decline 
and refuse." 

In another speech in the same campaign Mr. Glad- 
stone said : 

"What is the meaning of adding places like Cyprus 
/and places like the country of the Boers in South Africa 
to the British Empire? And, moreover, I would say 
this: That if those acquisitions were as valuable as 
they are valueless. I would repudiate them, because they 
are obtained by means dishonorable to the character of 
vour country." 

Such remarks as these, being duly translated and cir- 
culated in the Transvaal, could not fail to convince the 
Boers that they had a strong friend in Mr. Gladstone, 
and the accession of the Gladstone Ministry early in the 
following year led to another strong appeal to England, 
on the part of Kruger and Joubert, for an annulment 
of the annexation. 

From some cause or other, Mr. Gladstone seems to 
have experienced a change of heart about this time, and 
his answer to the Transvaal representatives was like 
unto that of Pharaoh of old, who hardened his heart 
and refused to allow the Israelites their freedom. 



To Majuba Hill. 



165 



His reply to Messrs. Kruger and Joubert was as fol- 
lows : 

"It is undoubtedly matter for much regret that it 
should, since the annexation, have appeared that so 
iarge a number of the population of Dutch origin in the 
Transvaal are opposed \o the annexation of that terri- 
tory, but it is impossible to consider that question as if 
it were presented for the first time. We have to deal 
with a state of things which has existed for a consider- 
able period, during which obligations have been con- 
tracted, especially, though not exclusively, toward the 
native population, which cannot be set aside. 

"Looking to all the circumstances, both of the Trans- 
vaal and the rest of South Africa, and to the necessity 
of preventing a renewal of disorders which might lead 
to disastrous consequences, not only to the Transvaal, 
but to the whole of South Africa, our judgment is that 
the Queen cannot be advised to relinquish her sov- 
ereignty over the Transvaal ; but consistently with the 
maintenance of that sovereignty we desire that the white 
inhabitants of the Transvaal should, without prejudice 
to the rest of the population, enjoy the fullest liberty 
to manage their own affairs. We believe that this lib- 
erty may be most easily and promptly conceded to the 
Transvaal as a member of a South African Confedera- 
tion." 

While these important events were transpiring. Lord 
Chelmsford had. on July 5, 1879, conquered Cetewayo 
and the Zulus; and Sir Garnet Wolseley accomplished 
a similar triumph over Sikukuni on November 28 of 
the same year. This settled the trouble with the natives, 
and left the Transvaal free from fear of their depreda- 
tions — a somewhat tardy accomplishment of the relief 
England had promised some two years previously as 
a part of the annexation contract. 



To Majuba Hill. 



Great was the disappointment of the Boers to learn, 
on receipt of Mr. Gladstone's letter (dated June 8, 1880), 
that no relief could be expected from that quarter. All 
over the country a simmer of violence broke out. In 
the course of a month or two it manifested itself in a 
determination to refuse to pay taxes. Toward the end 
of the year this became an organized policy. The Brit- 
ish authorities selected a case for enforcement at Pot- 
chefstroom. This rallied the Boers to a focus. A mass- 
meeting was held at Paarde Kraal. It lasted from De- 
cember 8 to 13, and resulted in a determination to rise 
in revolt. 

Under the leadership of Kruger, Joubert and Pre- 
torius, a decision was reached by the Boers at Krugers- 
dorp, on December 8, 1880, to resist England and regain 
their independence as a nation. Quick action followed 
this decision, and a hotly contested conflict at Brunck- 
ers Spruit resulted in the killing or wounding of 157 of 
the English soldiers. 

England gave a quick response to this act by instruct- 
ing the Premier of South Africa, Sir Hercules Robinson, 
to at once subdue the rebellion. An army was sent for- 
ward under command of Sir George Colley. 

In the meantime the Boers had taken possession of 
Laing's Nek — a particularly valuable position of defense, 
being a mountainous pass connecting Natal with the 
Transvaal, and on the direct route by which the British 
forces must pass to invade the land of the Boers. On 
January 28, 1881, Sir George attacked the Boers, but 
was repulsed with* heavy loss. The forces on both sides 
are variously estimated, but it is probably the fact that 
the Boers outnumbered the British. The latter un- 
doubtedly underestimated the fighting qualities of their 
farmer foes — qualities with which they have since be- 
come better acquainted. 



/ 



To Majuba Hill. 



167 



Without waiting for reinforcements, Sir George again 
advanced, and another battle was waged at Ingogo 
Heights, resulting in another defeat. 

On the night of February 26, General Colley, who 
had been reinforced by Sir Evelyn Wood's command, 
took possession of the lofty heights of Majuba Hill — a 
mountain 6,000 feet above sea level and 3,000 feet above 
the level of the surrounding country. His intent was 
probably to fortify this lofty point, deeming it impreg- 
nable to assault. Be this as it rnay, the Boers scaled 
the hill the next day in the face of the British fire, divid- 
ing their forces in three sections. The rout of the Brit- 
ish was complete. General Colley and ninety-one others 
were killed in battle, and the Boers took fifty-nine ipris- 
oners. 

The following graphic account of the battle of Majuba 
Hill is by an English eye witness : 

"Sir George Colley had observed that Majuba Hill, 
which overlooked the right of the Boer position, was 
always left unoccupied at night, although it was held by 
a Boer picket during the day. Fearing that if he de- 
layed taking the hill the Boers might fortify it as they 
had done Laing's Nek, he determined to hold it. In order 
to do this, orders were given on Saturday, February 26, 
for 180 men of the Ninety-second (Gordon) Highlanders, 
T48 men of the Fifty-eighth",' 1 50 Rifles, and 70 Blue- 
jackets to assemble at half-past nine that evening. Their 
destination was kept a profound secret until on the point of 
starting, and each man carried three days' provisions and 
eighty rounds of ammunition. The expectation evident- 
ly was that Majuba Hill could be held for two or three 
days until reinforcements arrived with Sir Evelyn Wood, 
and then the assault on Laing's Nek could be delivered. 
That was all very well if the Boers had waited, but they 
did not. 



To Majuba Hill. 



"In silence the men marched three miles to Majuba Hill, 
and then began the terrible climb of three hours' duration. 
Tfte troops made their way to the back of the hill (its 
steepest part) to avoid detection by the Boers. The 
ascent was terrible. Burdened with rifles, haversacks, 
etc., the men had to crawl in the darkness on their stom- 
achs, or pull themselves up steep declivities by the help 
of growing plants. They reached the first height, but a 
second, connected with the first by a ridge, had to be en- 
countered. However, about four o'clock in the morning 
the top was reached, many of the men having lost much 
of their ammunition. The top of the mountain, at a 
height of two thousand feet above the Boer encampment, 
was found to consist of a large basin on which the force 
could be easily posted. Two companies of Highlanders 
were left at the foot of the hill to keep communication 
open with Camp Prospect. The men were posted all 
round at intervals of ten paces, leaving the Naval Brigade 
and fifty men of the Fifty-eighth Regiment as a reserve 
in the central hollow." 

"At daybreak," wrote Mr. Cameron, the correspondent 
of the London Standard, who was afterward taken pris- 
oner, "the enemy's principal laager was about two thou- 
sand yards distant. At sunrise the Boers were to be 
seen moving in their lines; but it was not until nearly 
an hour later that a party of mounted vedettes were seen 
trotting out toward the hill. As they approached our 
outlying pickets fired upon them. The sound of our 
guns was heard at the Dutch laager, and the whole scene 
changed as if by magic. In place of a few scattered 
figures there appeared on the scene swarms of men rush- 
ing hither and thither ; some ran to their horses, others to 
the wagons, and the work of inspanning the oxen and 
preparing for an instant retreat commenced. But when 
the first panic abated it could be seen that some person 



To Majuba Hill 169 

in authority had taken command. The greater portion 
of the Boers began to move forward with the evident 
intention of attacking us, but the work of preparing for 
a retreat in case of necessity still went on, and continued 
until all the wagons were inspanned and ready to move 
away; some, indeed, at once began to withdraw." 

The Boers opened fire about seven o'clock, the air being 
filled with the whistling of their bullets. Up to eleven 
o'clock the Boers lay round the hill and maintained a 
constant fire. Their shooting was exceedingly accurate, 
and the stones behind which our men lay were struck by 
every shot. 

"Opposed to such shooting as this/' wrote Mr. Came- 
ron, "there was no need to impress upon the men to keep 
well under cover. They only showed to take an occa- 
sional shot ; and, accurate as was the enemy's shooting, 
up to eleven o'clock we had but five casualties. Four of 
the Ninety-second were slightly wounded. Twenty of 
this regiment, under Lieutenant Hamilton, held the point 
which was most threatened by the Boers. Nothing could 
exceed the steadiness of these Highlanders. Thev kept 
well under cover, and, although they fired but seldom, 
they killed eight or ten of the Boers who showed them- 
selves from behind cover. 

"We had been exposed to five hours of unceasing fire, 
and had become accustomed to the constant humming of 
bullets, which at noon almost ceased, when the general, 
wearied with the exertions of the previous night, lay 
down to sleep. Communication by heliograph had been 
established with the camp, and confidence in our ability 
to hold our own had increased rather than abated. Lieu- 
tenant Hamilton, however, who. with his few men, had 
been opposing the enemy alone during the morning, did 
not share in the general assurance. A little after twelve, 
he came back from his position, to tell us that, having 



170 



To Majuba Hill. 



seen large numbers of the enemy pass to the hollow un- 
derneath him, he feared that they were up to some devil- 
ment. Reinforcements were promised him, and he re- 
turned to his post, but these did not reach him until it 
was almost too late." 

Shortly after this the comparative silence was broken 
by the shrieking of sustained rifle fire. Lieutenant 
Wright, of the Ninety-second, who was shot through the 
helmet, rushed back shouting for reinforcements. The 
General, assisted by his staff, set about getting these for- 
ward, and then it was that it dawned upon a few that the 
hill might be lost. It was quite evident that the men 
had no ambition to join the fighting line. They moved 
forward very hesitatingly, but at last they were got over 
the ridge, where they lay down some distance behind 
Hamilton and his twenty Highlanders, who, although op- 
posed to five hundred, did not budge an inch. Just at 
that moment some one ejaculated: ''Oh, there they are, 
quite close!" As soon as the men of the reinforcement, 
who, by the way, had not joined the twenty of the Ninety- 
second, heard that remark, they bolted pell-mell. This 
was more than -flesh and blood could stand, and the tw r enty 
Highlanders were forced to retire, the Boers making- 
havoc among the men. 

"I was on the left of the ridge," said Mr. Cameron, 
"when the men came back on us, and was a witness of 
the wild confusion which then prevailed. I saw Mac- 
donald of the Ninety-second (afterwards Brigadier-Gen- 
eral of Omdurman fame), revolver in hand, threaten to 
shoot any man who passed him ; and. indeed, everybody 
was at work rallying the broken troops. Many, of 
course, got away and disappeared over the side of the 
hill to the camp; but some 150 good men — Highlanders, 
Bluejackets and old soldiers of the Fifty-eighth — re- 
mained to man the ridge for the final stand." 



To Majuba HilL 



i? 1 



The Boers now appeared, and the fire that was ex- 
changed was fearful. Three times the Boers appeared 
and three times withdrew. It was then that Lieutenant 
Hamilton of the Ninety-second asked the General to al- 
low his men to charge. His request was disallowed. 
"Wait till they are closer," said the General. It was then 
too late. Some of the Boer marksmen had got into se- 
cure positions and were dropping the men, who fell fast 
shot through the head. A bayonet charge would have 
settled the matter, for above all the Boers were stealing 
round the exposed flanks. 

"We were anxious about our right flank. It was evi- 
dent/' continued Mr, Cameron, "that the enemy were 
stealing round it, so men were taken to prolong the posi- 
tion there. They w r ere chiefly Bluejackets, led by a brave 
young officer, and, as I watched them 'follow him up, 
for the third time that day, the conviction flashed across 
my mind that we should lose the hill. There was a knoll 
on the threatened point, up which the reinforcements hesi- 
tated to climb. Some of them went back over the top 
of the plateau to the further ridge, others went round. 
By and by there was confusion on the knoll itself. Some 
of the men on it stood up, and were at once shot down ; 
and at last the whole of those who were holding it gave 
way. Helter-skelter they w r ere at once followed by the 
Boers, who were then able to pour a volley into the flank 
of the main line, from which instant the hill of Majuba 
was theirs. It was a sauve qui petit, Major Hay, Cap- 
tain Singleton, of the Ninety-second, and some other offi- 
cers were the last to leave, and these were immediately 
shot down and-taken prisoners. The General had turned 
round last of all to walk after his retreating troops, when 
he was also shot dead through the head. To move over 
about one hundred yards of ground under the fire of some 
five hundred rifles at close range is not a pleasant ex- 



172 



To Majuba Hill. 



perience. but it was wha't all who remained of us on that 
hill that day had to go through. On every side men were 
throwing up their arms, and with sharp cries of agony 

were pitching forward on the ground. The Boers were 
mstantly on the ridge above, and for about ten minutes 
kept up their terrible fire on our soldiers, who plunged 
down every path. Many, exhausted with the night's 
marching and the clay's fightings unable to go any fur- 
ther, lay down behind the rocks and. bushes, and were 
afterward taken prisoners ; but of those who remained 
I . the hill to the very last, probably not one in six got 
clear away." 

On the following Tuesday a burial party was allowed 
to go up the hill. Some of the dead were found with 
terrible wounds, the result of the impact of the explosive 
elephant bullet used by some of the Boers. Among the 
dead was a color-sergeant, who had the company's money 
on his person. The burial party wished to place him at 
the bottom of the grave, but the Boers made the men 
bury the body on the top. a few inches below ground, 
for reasons best known to themselves. The number of 
killed amounted to three officers and eighty-two men. 
At first the disaster looked worse than ft was, for the 
official account reported that out of 35 officers and 693 
men, 20 officers and 266 men were killed, wounded or 
missing. However, this included a company of the 
Sixtieth, that did not take part in the fight. They were 
left to guard the line of communication with the camp. 
Many officers and men afterward succumbed to their in- 
juries. 

This signal defeat of the British was announced in 
England two days later, and the Government dispatched 
Sir Frederick Roberts from England with a vast rein- 
forcement. 

Whether England was unwilling to risk a further con- 



LATEST PORTRAIT OF SIR ALFRED MILNER. 



To Majuba Hill. 



173 



flict with the Boers, or that the sentiment of the Gov- 
ernment had suddenly changed in favor of granting 
the Transvaal the independence for which it was 
fighting is a mooted question. Certain it is that Sir 
Evelyn Wood was commissioned to negotiate with the 
Boers, and on March 28, 1881, a treaty was concluded 
at O'Neill's farm, near Majuba Hill, in which the priv- 
ilege of self-government was restored to the Transvaal 
Republic, "subject to the suzerainty of Her Majesty/' 

Thus was the battle of Majuba Hill fought, and thus 
the Boers regained their independence. 

Whether or not England would have succeeded in 
subduing the Boers, had the war not been called to a 
halt, is a question. Probably the advent of a stronger 
force would have resulted in defeat of the Boers. 

Certain it is, however, that Englishmen have chafed 
under the record of Majuba Hill for years, and the war 
of 1899 is being all the more fiercely waged from the 
opportunity it affords to English arms to redeem the 
record of that battle, which they feel is a disgrace to 
the British flag, and one which must be avenged. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE SECOND REPUBLIC. 

Up to this time (1881) the only special object England 
had to gain in retaining control of the Transvaal was 
the realization of the cherished plan of a united South 
African Federation. The Transvaal in itself was a 
region of farms and waste land — not particularly profit- 
able or productive, and not a province particularly de- 
sirable, except as an integral part of a United Africa. 
This, perhaps, explains in a measure the reason why the 
British Government so speedily concluded the retroces- 
sion. There were not wanting Englishmen, both in 
England and Africa, who gave reasons which were held 
to justify the surrender to the Boers. They pointed to 
the fact that it was with great difficulty that President 
Brand prevented the Free State burghers joining the 
Transvaal Boers ; to the exasperation manifested by the 
Dutch Afrikanders in Cape Colony and Natal, and to 
the fact that the British Government were advised from 
the Cape that the continuance of the struggle would 
probably light up a race conflict throughout South 
Africa. 

The late Lord Derby succeeded Lord Kimberley as 
Colonial Secretary, and he listened favorably to an ap- 
plication of President Kruger, which resulted in the 
substitution of the convention of 1884 for that of 1881. 
This convention is the basis of the present relations be- 
tween Great Britain and the Transvaal. By its terms 
the State was entitled to call itself the South African 
Republic whilst the control of foreign policy stipulated 



The Second Republic. 



175 



for in the convention of 1881 was reduced to the pro- 
vision that the Republic should conclude no treaty with 
any state or nation (other than the Oiange Free State) 
without the consent of the Queen. Nothing is said in 
the convention about "suzerainty/'' but it is contended 
on behalf of the British that the suzerainty still subsists. 
This claim is, with good reason, disputed, and no less 
an authority than Lord Derby himself declared, in 1884, 
that the specifications of the treaty included the right for 
the Boers to govern their country free from interference, 
subject only to the requirement that any treaty with a 
foreign state (except the Orange Free State) should not 
have effect without approval of the Queen. 

The convention of 1884 would probably have settled 
matters between the Boers and the English for all time 
to come had not an unforeseen and unexpected circum- 
stance occurred. Gold was discovered in the Witwaters- 
rand district, in the southwestern portion of the Repub- 
lis, in the year 1886, and the deposit proving to be one 
of the most valuable the world had ever known, a new 
and troublesome factor was introduced into South Afri- 
can politics. 

This was not the first discovery of the kind within 
Transvaal territory. Other and smaller 'deposits had 
been the scenes of excitement in preceding years, but 
the unbounded wealth of the Rand was of greater mo- 
ment. It is probable that the Boers had for years known 
of the mineral wealth of their territory, but, unwilling 
to exchange their peaceful methods of life for the sake 
of wealth-getting, they had concealed this knowledge 
from the world. 

As the information of the inexhaustible wealth of the 
Rand country became noised abroad, people from all 
parts of the world set their faces toward the new Gol- 
conda. In 1887 the output of the mines was 43,000 



176 



Tlte Second Republic. 



ounces. In 1888 it was 218,000 ounces; in 1889, 381,000 
ounces; in 1890, 491,000; in 1891, 729,000; in 18^2, 
1,210,000 ounces; in 1893, 1,478,000 ounces; in 1894, 
2,024,000 ounces — and the annual product of succeeding 
years has been steadily increasing. Experts claim that 
it will take nearly a hundred years to exhaust these rich 
gold fields. The great city of Johannesburg arose as 
if by magic. Thousands made it their home. The alien 
population of the Transvaal soon outnumbered the 
Boers. - 

To these newcomers the term "Uitlanders" (outland- 
ers) was applied. 

This vast new population wished many concessions, 
such as the right of voting and securing election to the 
Volksraad. They claimed that they were unjustly taxed 
and imposed upon by the Boers. They demanded cer- 
tain reforms, which the Boers were unwilling to grant. 
Hence arose the Jameson raid and the Franchise dis- 
putes, the latter of which ultimately resulted in the pres- 
ent war. These subjects will be more fully explained 
in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER Y 



THE JAMESON RAID. 

In the convention of 1884 nothing was said regarding 
the extension of the right to vote to newcomers in the 
Transvaal. President Kruger had said, in response to 
inquiry, that but a slight difference would be made in 
the case of Uitlanders who desired to acquire burgher 
rights. Under the law of 1882, a five-years' residence 
was required. The rush of newcomers during the years 
succeeding the discovery of gold was so great that, in 
1894, there were 70,000 Boers, 62,000 British subjects, 
and 15,000 other foreigners in the country. From this it 
will be seen that, had the Uitlanders all been permitted 
to vote, they would have outvoted the Boers and prac- 
tically assumed charge of the affairs of the country. Once 
in possession of power, the Uitlanders could easily have 
voted for re-annexation to the British Empire, and carried 
their point by a majority vote of the Volksraad. 

This possible contingency greatly alarmed the Boers, 
and they resolved to hedge the franchise with such re- 
quirements regarding term of residence, etc., as would 
render it impossible for the Uitlanders to secure control 
of the Government. The instinct of self-preservation 
impelled them to this course, and who can blame them ? 

It is true that the alien population had been the means 
of transforming a poverty-stricken Government into one 
of wealth — had enabled President Kruger to have a mag- 
nificent state-house constructed, to build railroads and to 
develop the country. 

But the gold with which this was accomplished was a 



i 7 8 



The Jameson Raid. 



part of the natural wealth of the land. The Boers were 
willing that the gold should be taken away if they were 
properly remunerated, but they insisted on retaining to 
themselves their Government, for which they had fought 
and struggled so many years. 

Consequently, in 1887, the length of residence neces- 
sary to secure a franchise was extended to fifteen years. 

A new branch of legislature was established, called the 
"Second Raad," and Uitlanders were eligible to election 
to this body after a four-years' residence. As the actions 
of this new house were subject to approval by the First 
Raad before they became laws, this concession amounted 
to but little. A legislative body with no power of inde- 
pendent action was a useless institution and of no satis- 
faction to the Uitlanders. 

Further amendments to the electoral laws, enacted be- 
tween 1887 and 1894, made it impossible for any Uit- 
lander~to become a voter without renouncing allegiance 
to other governments. This would seem to an American 
to be perfectly just, as the renunciation of all former al- 
legiances is made a prerequisite to naturalization in the 
United States. 

The Englishmen in the Transvaal wished, however, to 
become voters in that Republic without renouncing their 
allegiance to the British Government, and upon this point 
they stood firm. The Boers were just as firmly deter- 
mined that this should not be. 

Efforts were made by the British Government to have 
the term of residence necessary to franchise reduced to 
five years, and to permit Englishmen to vote, but all such 
overtures were rejected by President Kruger. 

It is well at this point to mention Cecil Rhodes, one 
of the most prominent characters in modern South Afri- 
can history. This remarkable man has had such an in- 
fluence on the history of South Africa that no history 



The Jameson Raid. 



179 



of that region would be complete without some mention 
of his career. Mr. Rhodes, whose full name and title is 
the Right Honorable Cecil John Rhodes, is the fourth 
son of the Rev. Francis W. Rhodes, rector of Bishop 
Stortford, England. He was educated at Oxford, and 
weak lungs and consequent fear of consumption drove 
him to Africa, where, as an active and energetic young 
man, he soon took a prominent part in the political field 
of his chosen home. In 1884 he was appointed Treas- 
urer-General of Cape Colony, followed almost immediate- 
ly by an appointment as Deputy Commissioner of Bechu- 
analand. In 1889 he was chosen Director-General of the 
British South African Company, an institution which had 
been fostered and prompted mainly by his ability, and 
which became at once a leading factor in the develop- 
ment of the British interests in that territory. The head 
of the greatest of England's interests in Africa w r as a 
natural choice for the vacant premiership, and from 1890 
to 1894 he administered the affairs of Cape Colony, mean- 
while holding the various positions of Chairman of the 
South African Company, director of the great De Beers 
mines at Kimberley, and Commissioner of Crown Lands. 
In 1894 he was made Minister of Native Affairs, and re- 
lieved of his premiership. 

Mr. Rhodes is, undoubtedly, a man of marked ability — 
a first-class promoter ; and while his schemes for the set- 
tlement and development of Rhodesia (the British terri- 
tory lying north and west of the Transvaal) have been 
to some extent Utopian, it cannot be denied that, what- 
ever may be Mr. Rhodes' faults, he has certainly done 
much for Africa and the Afrikanders. 

In 1871 Cecil Rhodes was a thin-faced, lanky lad of 
eighteen, with dull eyes. His countenance did not 
suggest intelligence and indicated nothing of force, 
That was only twenty-eight years ago. Now he is the 



iSo 



The Jameson Raid. 



diamond king, the gold king, the railroad builder, the 
multi-millionaire among multi-millionaires in his private 
humdrum capacity. In his public capacity he is the 
founder of a vast empire, a statesman who in Gladstone's 
time was counted second only to the Grand Old Man 
himself; since Gladstone's death counted second to none 
in all the vast British dominions for relentless force and 
sheer weight of personal power. 

It naturally would be a good deal of a man who could 
make hatred for himself the one overshadowing passion 
of a character so broad and full of force as that of Kruger. 
It is impossible to think of the Transvaal leader indulg- 
ing himself in real hatred for anything smaller than a 
giant. 

"It is no use for us to have big ideals/' said Rhodes 
once, in conversation with his friend, Chinese Gordon, 
"unless we have money tp carry them out." 

That sentiment was the keynote of his early career in 
South Africa. He had big ideals and he needed a colos- 
sal fortune to carry them out. So he went and got the 
colossal fortune, just as a carpenter would go and get his 
tools to do a piece of work. His one ideal, around which 
all other ideals centred, was a vast United States of South 
Africa. His dream was a compact federated nation like 
the United States of America. When the home rule 
agitation was going on in England he exclaimed impa- 
tiently : 

"Why don't they go and read the Constitution of the 
United States instead of speculating on this and doubting 
about that? There is no speculation or doubt about it. 
Home rule is not an experiment. It has been worked 
out and solved in the United States for more than a hun- 
dred years." 

Another time, commenting on the vilification that was 



The Jameson Raid. 



181 



being poured in the English papers on South African 
ambitions, and on him personally, he said : 

'That is the sort of talk that led to Bunker Hill. I 
am loyal. The Cape is loyal. But continued injustice 
and misrepresentation will alienate the most loyal. If 
England interferes with us — well, the United States of 
{South Africa is not an ill-sounding name. 

As to his wealth, some place it at $75,000,000 and some 
at $150,000,000, and a figure between the two is prob- 
ably about right. In his money-getting days he was a 
money-getter and fond of money and that which repre- 
sents money. The story is still told of him in Kimberley 
that he filled a pail full of diamonds, all his own, and 
poured out the glittering heap again and again with al- 
most childish pleasure. 

But that epoch quickly passed, and he turned to graver 
things. 

"He would now no more think of hoarding money/ 5 
said an acquaintance of his recently, "than a party leader 
would think of hoarding votes. To him a million pounds 
simply means a lever, an instrument of power." 

It is impossible for those who see him now to think 
of him as ever having been a weakling sent abroad to die. 
He is six feet one inch tall in his shoes, and heavy and 
muscular in proportion. His appearance is a marvel. 
Chief Lobengula called him "the man who eats a whole 
country for his dinner." 

"He had the face of a Caesar, the ambition of a Loyola, 
and the wealth of Croesus," says one writer. 

His gray eyes, somewhat sunken in their orbits, have 
an almost melancholy expression, in curious contrast with 
the bold resolution of the other features. Washington 
had such eyes ; so did Lincoln. In speech Cecil Rhodes 
is simple and direct, and in manner frank , He has' waged 
several fierce wars with natives, he is building a railway 



182 



Ttie Jameson Raid. 



and telegraph line from Cairo to the Gape, to say nothing 
of the lines he has built in the Cape country itself, he has 
founded an empire — and he is but forty-six years old. 
Yet his great reproach against himself is that he is lazy — 
has led, on the whole, rather an indolent life. 

The Jameson raid grew out of the franchise troubles 
in the Transvaal, combined with many other alleged 
grievances, such as the commandeering of British sub- 
jects and the dynamite monopoly. The denial of elec- 
toral rights to the immigrants — the majority of whom 
were British subjects — caused great unrest among the in- 
habitants of the Rand, and appeals for help to the High 
Commissioner and to the Colonial Office were frequent. 
The Liberal Government of that day took cognizance of 
the Uitlanders' position, and in a dispatch to Sir H. B. 
Loch, Governor of the Cape at that time, dated October 
19, 1894, Lord Ripon, the Colonial Secretary, pointed 
out the increasing stringency of the conditions by which 
a majority of adult males, bearing the chief part of the 
public burdens, were excluded from all share in the man- 
agement of public affairs. He went on to say: "The 
period of residence, which constitutes the most important 
condition of naturalization, differs in different countries, 
but there is a very general concensus of opinion among 
civilized States that five years is a sufficiently long period 
of probation, and Her Majesty's Government would wish 
you to press upon the Government of the Republic the 
view that the period in this case should not exceed that 
limit as regards the right to vote in the first Volksraad, 
which is the dominant body, and in Presidential elec- 
tions." 

Lord Ripon's advice was unheeded by President Kru- 
ger and the Boers, and the agitation for a change in the 
conditions grew in strength. The Transvaal National 
Union, a body which had been in existence some years, 



The Jameson Raid. 



183 



conducted its agitation openly, but its efforts met with no 
success, petitions to the Raad being uniformly unsuccess- 
ful. At this period the leaders in what is properly de- 
scribed as constitutional agitation were approached by 
others, whose methods were not peaceful, and whose ob- 
ject was not the reform of the constitution o r the Repub- 
lic, but the substitution of English rule. "I did not/' said 
Mr. Rhodes to the House of Commons, in explanation of 
his alleged complicity in the raid, "wish to substitute 
President J. B. Robinson for President Kruger." 

A number of agitators decided to take matters in their 
own hands and obtain by force what fair means could 
not accomplish. Accordingly a number of leading cit- 
izens of Johannesburg sent a letter to Dr. Jameson, the 
Administrator of Rhodesia, at Mafeking, stating that the 
position of matters in the Transvaal had become so crit- 
ical that at no distant period there would be a conflict 
between the Government and the Uitlander population. 
After making strong complaints of both the internal and 
external policy of the Boer Government, the letter pro- 
ceeded to declare that in the event of a conflict thousands 
of unarmed men, women and children would be at the 
mercy of well-armed Boers, while property of enormous 
value would be in the greatest peril. The signatories of 
the letter stated that they felt they were justified in taking 
any steps to prevent the shedding of blood and to insure 
the protection of their rights, and they, therefore, were 
constrained to call Dr. Jameson to their aid. 

Dr. Jameson gathered a force together and entered 
the Transvaal on January 1, 1896. He had with him a 
contingent of the Bechuanaland troops, with six Maxims, 
but for months before the Boers had been on the alert. 
They noted that horses were being bought, and on in- 
quiry found that volunteers in England were not provid- 
ed with horses. The Boer spies soon discovered that the 



184 



The Jameson Raid. 



troops were not volunteers, in the military* sense of the 
word, but men who were about to march on Johannes- 
burg. At Krugersdorp, Jameson expected to find 2,000 
good men and true from Johannesburg, but they were 
not there, so he and his 460 men had to face 2,000 Boers 
in a strong position. For eleven hours the troopers 
fought, but the Boers were not to be conquered. The 
column then moved southward, fighting hard on its way 
to Johannesburg. Through the whole night the firing 
was kept up, and in the morning the column again faced 
the Boers at Doornkop, six miles from Johannesburg. 
Still the Uitlanders did not appear, and the column 
fought on against overwhelming odds, until having used 
all the cartridges and having had no food for twenty-four 
hours, they had to give in. x\t the same time the white 
flag was not hoisted by Dr. Jameson's orders- 

Dr. Jameson and his officers were taken prisoners, and 
eventually handed over to Great Britain. They were 
tried at Bow Street on the charge of having unlawfully 
prepared and fitted out a military expedition to proceed 
against the dominions of a friendly State. The principals 
were found guilty and sentenced to various terms of im- 
prisonment, but were afterward pardoned and reinstated. 
The names of the officers engaged in the raid were : Dr, 
Jameson, Major Sir John C. Willoughby, Major the Hon. 
Henry F. White, Captain Raleigh Grey, Captain the Hon. 
Robert White, Major John B. Stracey, Captain C. H. 
Villiers, Lieut. K. J. Kincaid Smith, Lieutenant H. M. 
Grenfell, C. P. Foley, Captain C. L. D. Muaro, Captain 
C. F. Lindsell, Captain E, C. S. Holden, Major the Hon. 
C. Coventry and Captain Audley V. Gosling. 

Mr. Rhodes was more than suspected of complicity in 
this affair, but, as no positive proof was forthcoming, he 
w r as let dow r n easily, and this incident was closed to all 
outward appearances. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE CAUSES 01? THE PRESENT WAR. 

Although the bold attempt of Dr. Jameson and his fol- 
lowers to bring the Boers to terms by an unauthorized 
and unjustified raid on a friendly power had failed, the 
Uitlanders were by no means willing to give up the cause 
for which they had instigated the demonstration. Violent 
measures having failed, diplomacy was again brought 
into play. 

At this time the franchise laws stood about as follows, 
as per enactments of 1891 : 

To be eligible to citizenship a newcomer must have 
signed his name on the "field-cornets' roll" within four- 
teen days of his arrival. 

Two years thereafter he was entitled to take out a cer- 
tificate of naturalization. This enabled him to vote for 
the "second Volksraad" and two years later to be elected 
to membership if thirty years of age. 

Twelve years after naturalization, if forty years of age, 
and indorsed by three-fourths of the burghers in the dis- 
trict, he might vote for the first Raad ; and if sufficiently 
popular, be elected to that body. 

. To acquire all these privileges he must, at the time of 
naturalization, subscribe to the following oath : 

"I desire to become a burgher of the South African 
Republic, abandon, give up, and relinquish all obedience, 
fealty, and the obligations of a subject to all and any 
foreign sovereigns, presidents, states, and sovereignties, 
and more especially the Sovereign, President, the State, or 
Sovereignty of whom I have hitherto been a subject and 



1 86 The Causes of the Present War. 



burgher, and as subject take the oath of fealty and obedi- 
ence to the Government and laws of the people of the 
South African Republic." 

It will be seen that the acquirement of citizenship in 
the Transvaal Republic was by no means an easy task. 
The oath of allegiance left the prospective citizen for 
twelve years a man with no privileges, but many obliga- 
tions. 

The requirements were more stringent than would 
seem necessary, and it would appear that the Boers had 
erred on the side of unnecessary restriction. When it 
is considered, however, that these Dutch farmers felt that 
their very existence as a nation was at stake, some excuse 
may be urged for their stringency. They had not invited 
the Uitlanders to come to their country. They, in fact, 
resented their presence, despite the wealth it had brought 
them. 

Viewing the case calmly and dispassionately, injustice 
appears on one side and unjust demands on the other. 
The English wanted too much, and the Boers would con- 
cede too little. Johannesburg, a vast and thriving mu- 
nicipality, was not allowed the privileges and advantages 
of a municipal government* 

The Boers governed the city to their liking. Undoubt- 
edly many cases of unjust persecution existed. The Eng- 
lish cite many instances of brutality and inhumanity on 
the part of the Boer police toward the British subjects 
residing in Johannesburg. 

But are overbearing acts on the part of the police un- 
known in New York or London ? 

The immorality and vice which flourishes in every min- 
ing camp was more than unusually in evidence in Johan- 
nesburg. The Boers, nurtured in a strict religious creed, 
were shocked at such a state of affairs, and adopted 
drastic measures to reform the city. That they over- 



The Causes of the Present War. 187 



stepped the bounds of justice at times there is no reason 
to doubt. The Transvaal Boers are not angels — neither 
are the English (or other people, for that matter) whom 
a greed for gold has drawn to the modern Golconda. 
The race hatred which existed caused the Boers to pass 
many obnoxious laws from time to time, much to the 
discomfort of the Johannesburg residents. 

In i<S98 the Uitlanders resolved to endeavor to obtain 
an adjustment for their grievances by an appeal to the 
British Government. Consequently, a document was pre- 
pared and duly forwarded. 

This petition cited the oppression under which they 
chafed — the laws that they felt to be unjust, and the 
efforts which they had put forth to obtain an amicable 
adjustment of their troubles. 

The following is the text of their complaint : 

For a number of years, prior to 1896, considerable dis- 
content existed among the Uitlander population of the 
South African Republic, caused by the manner in which 
the Government of the country was being conducted. 
The great majority of the Uitlander population consists 
of British subjects. It was, and is, notorious that the 
Uitlanders have no share in the government of the coun- 
try, although they constitute an absolute majority of the 
inhabitants of this State, possess a very large portion of 
the land, and represent the intellect, wealth, and energy 
of the State. The feelings of intense irritation w T hich have 
been aroused by this state of things have been aggravated 
by the manner in which remonstrances have been met. 
Hopes have been held out and promises have been made 
by the Government of this State from time to time, but 
no practical amelioration of the conditions of life has re- 
sulted. Petitions, signed by large numbers of Your 
Majesty's subjects, have been repeatedly addressed to the 
Government of this State, but have failed of their efifect, 



188 The Causes of tlie Present War. 



and have even been scornfully rejected. At the end of 
, 1895 the discontent culminated in an armed insurrection 
against the Government of this State, which, however, 
failed of its object. On that occasion the people of Johan- 
nesburg placed themselves unreservedly in the hands of 
Your High Commissioner, in the fullest confidence that 
he would see justice done to them. On that occasion 
also President Kruger published a proclamation, in which 
he again held out hopes of substantial reforms. Instead, 
however, of the admitted grievances being redressed, the 
spirit of the legislation adopted by the Volksraad during 
the past few years has been of a most unfriendly char- 
acter, and has made the position of the Uitlanders more 
irksome than before. In proof of the above statement. 
Your Majesty's petitioners would humbly refer to such 
measures as the following: 

The Immigration of Aliens Act (Law 30 of 1896). 

The Press Law (Law 26 of 1896). 

The Aliens' Expulsion Law of 1896. 

Of these, the first was withdrawn at the instance of 
Your Majesty's Government, as being an infringement 
of the London convention of 1884. 

Notwithstanding the evident desire of the Government 
to legislate solely in the interests of the burghers, and 
impose undue burdens on the Uitlanders, there was still 
a hope that the declaration of the President on the 30th 
of December, 1896, had some meaning-, and that the Gov- 
ernment would duly consider grievances properly brought 
before its notice. Accordingly, in the early part of 1897, 
steps were taken to bring to the notice of the Govern- 
ment the alarming depression of the mining industry, and 
the reasons which, in the opinions of men well qualified 
to judge, had led up to it. The Government at last ap- 
pointed a commission consisting of its own officials, which 
was empowered to inquire into the industrial conditions 



The Causes of the Present War. 189 



of the mining population, and to suggest such a scheme 
for the removal of existing grievances as might seem ad- 
visable and necessary. On the 5th of August the com- 
mission issued their report, in which the reasons for the 
then state of depression were duly set forth, and many 
reforms were recommended as necessary for the well- 
being of the community. Among them it will be suffi- 
cient to mention the appointment of an Industrial Board, 
having its seat in Johannesburg, for the special super- 
vision of the Liquor Law,- and the Pass Law, and to 
combat the illicit dealing in gold and amalgam. The 
Government refused to accede to the report of the com- 
mission, which was a standing indictment against its ad- 
ministration in the past, but referred the question to the 
Volksraad, which in turn referred it to a select committee 
of its own members. The result created -consternation in 
Johannesburg, for, whilst abating in some trifling re- 
spects burdens which bore heavily on the mining industry, 
the committee of the Raad, ignoring the main recom- 
mendations of the commission, actually advised an in- 
creased taxation of the country, and that in a way which 
bore most heavily on the Uitlander. The suggestions of 
the committee were at once adopted, and the tariff in- 
creased accordingly. 

At the beginning of 1897 the Government went a step 
further in their aggressive policy toward the Uitlander, 
and attacked the independence of the High Court, which 
until then Your Majesty's subjects had regarded as the 
sole remaining safeguard of their civil rights. Early in 
that year Act No. 1 was rushed through the Volksraad 
with indecent haste. This high-handed act was not al- 
lowed to pass without criticism; but the Government, 
deaf to all remonstrance, threatened reprisals on those 
professional men who raised their voices in protest, and 
finally, on the 16th of February, 1898, dismissed the Chief 



190 The Causes of the Present War. 



justice, Mr. J. G. Kotze, for maintaining his opinions. 
His place was filled shortly afterward by Mr. Gregorow- 
ski, the judge who had been especially brought from the 
Orange Free State to preside over the trial of the Re- 
form prisoners in 1896, and who, after the passing of 
the act above referred to, had expressed an opinion that 
no man of self-respect would sit on the bench whilst 
that law remained on the statute book of the republic. 
All the judges at the time thisiaw was passed condemned 
it in a formal protest, publicly read by the Chief Justice 
in the High Court, as a gross interference with the inde- 
pendence of that tribunal. That protest has never been 
modified or retracted, and of the five judges who signed 
the declaration three still sit on the bench. 

The constitution and personnel of the police force is 
one of the standing menaces to the peace of Johannes- 
burg. It has already been the subject of remonstrance 
to the Government of this Republic, but hitherto without 
avail. An efficient police force cannot be drawn from a 
people such as the burghers of this State ; nevertheless, 
the Government refuses to open its ranks to any other 
class of the community. As a consequence, the safety of 
the lives and property of the inhabitants is confided in a 
large measure to the care of men fresh from the country 
districts, who are unaccustomed to town life, and igno- 
rant of the ways and requirements of the people. When 
it is considered that this police force is armed with re- 
volvers in addition to the ordinary police truncheons, it 
is not surprising that, instead of a defense, they are abso- 
lutely a danger to the community at large. Encouraged 
and abetted by the example of their superior officers, the 
police have become lately more aggressive than ever in 
their attitude toward British subjects. As, however, re- 
monstrances and appeals to the Government were useless, 
the indignities to which Your Majesty's subjects were 



Causes of the Present War. 191 



daily exposed from this source had to be endured- as best 
they might. Public indignation was at length fully 
roused by the death at the hands of a police constable of 
a British subject named Tom Jackson Edgar. The cir- 
cumstances of this affair were bad enough in themselves, 
but were accentuated by the action of the Public Prose- 
cutor, who, although the accused was charged with mur- 
der, on his own initiative reduced the charge to that of 
culpable homicide only, and released the prisoner on the 
recognizance of his comrades in the police force, the bail 
being fixed originally at £200, or less than the amount 
which is commonly demanded for offenses under the 
liquor law, or for charges of common assault. 

The condition of Your Majesty's subjects in this State 
has indeed become well-nigh intolerable. The acknowl- 
edged and admitted grievances of which Your Majesty's 
subjects complain prior to 1895 not only are not re- 
dressed, but exist to-day in an aggravated form. They 
are still deprived of all political rights, they are denied 
any voice in the government of the country, they are 
taxed far above the requirements of the country, the 
revenue of which is misapplied and devoted to objects 
which keep alive a continuous and well founded feeling 
of irritation, without in any way advancing the general 
interests of the State. Maladministration and pecula- 
tion of public moneys go hand in hand, without any vig- 
orous measures being adopted to put a stop to the scandal. 
The education of Uitlander children is made subject to 
impossible conditions. The police afford no adequate 
protection to the lives and property of the inhabitants of 
Johannesburg; they are rather a source of danger to the 
peace and safety of the Uitlander population. 

A further grievance has become prominent since the 
beginning of the year. The power vested in the Govern- 
ment by means of the Public Meetings Act has been a 
r 



194 Causes of the Present War. 

those presented by the British High Commissioner at 
Bloemfontein. It is also of the opinion that the condi- 
tions attached to these proposals are reasonable. 

''The Transvaal never desired "Great Britain to aban- 
don any rights possessed by virtue of the London Con- 
vention of 1884 or by virtue of international law. The 
Transvaal still hopes that these declarations will lead to" 
a good understanding and a solution of the existing diffi- 
culties." 

With regard to the question of suzerainty, the Trans- 
vaal Government refers to the dispatch of April 16, 1898, 
and considers it unnecessary to repeat that dispatch. 

"The Transvaal Government has already made known 
to the British agent its objections to accepting the pro- 
posals contained in the British High Commissioner's tele- 
gram of August 2, suggesting the appointment of dele- 
gates to draw up a report on the last electoral law voted 
by the Volksraad. If the one-sided examination referred 
to in the last British dispatch should show that the ex- 
isting electoral law can be made more efficacious, the 
Transvaal Government is ready to make a proposal to the 
Volksraad with this object. It is also disposed to furnish 
all the information and enlightenment possible, but is of 
opinion that the result of such an inquiry, so far as re- 
gards a useful appreciation of the law, will be of little 
value. Nevertheless, the Government is very desirous of 
satisfying Great Britain in the matter of the electoral law 
and the representation of the mining districts." 

In reference to England's further proposal for a joint 
inquiry, the document states : 

"Considering that by these proposals Great Britain does 
not aim at any interference in the affairs of the Trans- 
vaal, and that the action would not be regarded as a prece- 
dent, but has solely for its object to ascertain whether 
the franchise law fulfills its purpose, the Transvaal Gov- 



Causes of the Present War. 195 



ernment will await the ulterior proposals of Great Britain 
as to the eventual constitution of such commission, as 
well as the place and time of meeting. 

"The Transvaal Government further proposes at an 
early date to send a new reply to the letter of July 27, 
and expresses satisfaction that Great Britain has declared 
a readiness to negotiate on the question of a court of arbi- 
tration. It says it would like to learn, however, whether 
the Free State burghers would be admitted to such a 
court, and what would be the scope of the court's discus- 
sions, it appearing to the Transvaal Government that the 
restrictions imposed will prevent the attainment of the 
objects aimed at. With regard to the ulterior conference 
the Transvaal awaits the communications of Great 
Britain." 

In spite of this frank expression of a willingness on the 
part of the Transvaal to agree to any reasonable plan of 
negotiations, Mr. Chamberlain issued the following reply 
on September 22 : 

"The Imperial Government are now compelled to con- 
sider the situation afresh and formulate proposals for a 
final settlement of the issues which have been created in 
South Africa by the policy constantly followed for many 
years by the Government of the South African Republic 
(the Transvaal). 

"They will communicate the result of their delibera- 
tions in a later dispatch/' 

This practically broke off negotiations. 

After waiting until October 9th for further word from 
the British Government, the Boers sent a repetition of 
the demand for arbitration and a request for the cessation 
of the massing of British troops on their borders, as a 
menace to them in the existing strained relations. 

This ultimatum from President Kruger was unan- 
swered, and was immediately followed by an invasion of 



196 Causes of the Present War. 



the British territory of Natal by the Boers, who felt that 
war was no longer to be averted. For a month the Eng- 
lish had been sending troops to the front. During the 
same period the Boers had been preparing for a defensive 
and offensive campaign. The last efforts of displomatic 
communication had been exhausted. 

The forces of the Orange Free State, the allies and 
friends of the Boers, joined with them, under an existing 
agreement, by which each country stood pledged to assist 
the other in w r ar. 

While the Orange Free State had maintained an un- 
broken independence from 1854, and escaped the troubles 
which fell to the lot of the Transvaal, the two republics 
had always been united to each other by ties of friendship 
and of blood. Hence the burghers of the Free State and 
those of the Transvaal are fighting side by side. 



CHAPTER VII. 



A FEW STATISTICS. 

Before entering into a record of the events of the pres- 
ent war it is well to consider the resources and fighting 
strength of the Republics and the Empire that are pitted 
against each other. 

The area of the Transvaal is 119,139 square miles; the 
estimated white population, 345,397, and the native popu- 
lation, 748,759. The fighting strength is estimated at 
15,000, and that of the Orange Free State at 6,000. They 
are well armed and equipped, and in the event of a fair 
measure of success will undoubtedly be able to augment 
this force by recruits from Cape Colony and other British 
territory, from the Dutch population, or "Afrikander" 
element. In fact, it may be safely stated that hundreds, 
if not thousands, of the Boers who reside in British terri- 
tory have already joined forces with their compatriots 
in the Transvaal. 

The Orange Free State contains 48,326 square miles, 
with a population (in 1890) of 77,716 whites and 129,787 
natives. The present president is M. T. Steyn, and the 
form of government is very similar to that of the Trans- 
vaal. 

Natal contains 35,000 square miles, 61,000 white popu- 
lation and 768,000 blacks. 

Cape Colony contains 231,276 square miles and has 
a population of 956,485, of which about three-fourths are 
blacks. 

The area of Southern Rhodesia is 174,728 square miles. 
Northern Rhodesia is practically boundless, including all 



A Few Statistics. 



British possessions and unexplored regions north of the 
Zambesi River. Southern Rhodesia includes all of Brit- 
ish South Africa from the Zambesi to Cape Colony. Its 
estimated native population is 450,000. 

R Ally WAY DISTANCES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



Cape Town to Miles, 

De Aar 501 

Kimberley 647 

Vryburg 774 

Mafeking 870 

Ramathlabama 882 

Palpye 1133 

Buluwayo 1361 

Naauwpoort 570 

Norval's Pont 628 

Bloemfontein 750 

Viljoen's Drift 959 

Johannesburg 1014 

Pretoria 1040/ 

Delagoa Bay to 

Komati Poort 58 

Pretoria 349 

Johannesburg 395 

P. Elizabeth to 

Naauwpoort 270 

Norval's Pont . 328 

Bloemfontein 450 

Viljoen's Drift 659 

Johannesburg 714 

Pretoria 740 

Durban to 

Pietermaritzburg 70 

Ladysmith 189 



A Few Statistics. 



199 



Harrismith . 
Glencoe .... 
Newcastle . . 
Laing's Nek 
Charlestown 
Volksrust . . . 
Johannesburg 
Pretoria .... 



249 
231 
268 
301 

304 
308 

483 
5ii 



The British forces in South Africa at the opening of the 
war, and their disposition, is thus described by an English 
writer : 

"For some time after the Boers concentrated on the 
frontier of the Transvaal the British public was greatly 
concerned whether the Imperial forces then at the out- 
posts were strong enough to resist a Boer raid before 
reinforcements arrived. However, the Natal field force 
was reinforced by six thousand men from India — Royal 
Artillery, Fifth Dragoon Guards, Gordon Highlanders, 
Third Rifles, with other details. 

Strong positions were taken up at Glencoe, Dundee, 
Newcastle and Ladysmith, on the Natal border. Gen. 
Sir George White, V. C, with Maj.-Gen. Sir Archi- 
bald Hunter as Chief of Staff, commanded the Natal 
force, which, roughly speaking, was fifteen thousand 
strong. At Dundee there was a large camp of the King's 
Royal Rifles, Fifth Lancers, Tenth Hussars, First Leices- 
ter Regiment, Second Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Man- 
chester Regiment, Natal Mounted Rifles, six Maxim 
guns, the Natal Field Artillery, an armored train, and 
the Durban Light Infantry. 

Within fifty miles of the Transvaal border there are at 
least ten railway bridges built of steel, with a span of 
one hundred feet. The most important ones are those 
over the Ingagane River, forty-one miles from Charles- 
town, consisting of three spans of one-hundred feet each ; 
over the Incandu River at Newcastle, three spans of one 
hundred and eighty feet; the Ingogo bridge, thirty-five 
miles from the border, and the Coldstream bridge, of 



200 



A Few Statistics. 



forty feet span, through which runs a wire fence, forming 
the boundary between Natal and the Transvaal. In the 
event of the Boers destroying these bridges, the British 
troops w T ill suffer greatly. 

Gen. Sir Forestier- Walker, who commands the 
forces on the Kimberley side of the Transvaal, has a 
good fighting contingent under him. At Mafekihg Col. 
Baden-Powell and Col. Plumer command crack shots 
and rough riders who took part in the recent native 
wars around there. Further north, at Ramathlabama, 
Col. Vivian- has at command a large force of irregu- 
lar horse, and Kimberley itself is protected by the North 
Lancashire Regiment and several batteries of artillery. 
All these posts have been further strengthened by rein- 
forcements from the Mediterranean and by the Army 
Service Corps, the Royal Engineers, and other details 
from England. 

The army is officered as follows : 

FIRST ARMY CORPS. 
Gen. Sir Redvers H. Buller in Command, 

FIRST DIVISION. 

Lieut.-Gen. Lord Methuen in Command. 
First Brigade. 

Maj.-Gen. Sir H. E. Colville in Command. 
Third Grenadier Guards — Gibraltar. 
First Coldstream Guards — Gibraltar. 
First Scots Guards — London. 

Second Brigade. 
Maj.-Gen. H. J. T. Hildyard in Command. 
Second Devonshires — Aldershot. 
Second West Yorkshires — Aldershot. 
Second Royal West Surrey — Portsmouth. 
Second East Surrey — Woking. 
Fourteenth Hussars ( squadron) — Xewbridge. 
Seventh, Fourteenth and Sixty-sixth Field Batteries 
and Engineers — Aldershot. 



A Few Statistics, 



20 1 



SECOND DIVISION. 

Maj.-Gen. (local Lieutenant-General) Sir C. F. Clery in 

Command. 

Third Brigade. 
Maj.-Gen. A. G. Wauchope in Command. 
Second Black Watch — Aldershot. 
First Highland L. I. — Devonport. 
Second Seaforth Highlanders— Fort George. 
First Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders — Dublin. 

Fourth Brigade. 
Maj.-Gen. the Hon. N. J. Lyttelton in Command. 
First Durham L. I. — Aldershot. 
Second Cameronians — Glasgow. 
Third K. R. Rifles— Kilkenny. 
First Rifle Brigade — Parkhurst. 
Sixty-fourth Battery — Aldershot. 
Sixty-third Battery — Bristol. 
Seventy-third Battery — Dorchester. 
Fourteenth Hussars (squadron) — Newbridge. 
Engineers — Aldershot. 

THIRD DIVISION. 

Maj.-Gen. (local Lieutenant-General) Sir W. F. Gatacre 
in Command. 

Fifth Brigade. 
Maj.-Gen. A. Fitzroy Hart in Command. 
First Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers — Mullingar. 
Second Royal Irish Rifles — Belfast. 
First Connaught Rangers — Athlone. 
First Royal Dublin Fusiliers — The Curragh. 

Sixth Brigade. 
Maj.-Gen. G. Barton in Command. 
Second Royal Irish Fusiliers — Colchester. 
Second Royal Fusiliers — Aldershot. 
Second Royal Scots Fusiliers — Aldershot. 
First Royal Welsh Fusiliers — Pembroke Dock. 
Fourteenth Hussars (squadron) — Newbridge. 



202 A Few Statistics, 

Seventy-seventh Battery — Coventry. 
Seventy-fourth Battery — Xewcastle-on-Tyne. 
Seventy-ninth Battery — Cahir. 

FOURTH DIVISION. 

Col. (local Lieutenant-General) Sir W. P. Symons in 

Command. 

Seventh Brigade. 
Col. (local Major-General) F. Howard in Command. 
Eighth Brigade. 
Major-General to be nominated locally. 

CAVALRY DIVISION. 

Col. (local Lieutenant-General) J. D. P. French in Com- 
mand. 

First Brigade. 

Col. (local Major-General) J. M. Babington in Com- 
mand. 

Second Brigade. 
Col. (local Major-General) J. R. Brabazon in Command. 
First Royal Dragoons — Hounslow. 
Second Dragoons (Scots Greys) — Edinburgh. 
Sixth Dragoons ^Inniskillings) — The Curragh. 
"O" Battery R. H. A.— Aldershot. 

Third Brigade. 

Col. (local Major-General) J. F. Brocklehurst in Com- 
mand. 

The other regiments in the cavalry division are : 

Sixth Dragoon Guards ( Carabiniers) . 

Tenth (Prince of Wales' Own Royal) Hussars. 

Twelfth (Prince of Wales' Royal) Lancers. 

Thirteenth Hussars. 

Fourteenth (King's) Hussars. 

Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery. 

The full strength of the army corps which has so far 
(November 20, 1899,) been sent' out to South Africa over 



A Few Statistics. 



203 



and above .the troops already there, is 52,138 officers and 
men, with 114 guns. 

Of the 52,138, 49.306 will be actually in the field, and 
2,832, in comparatively small numbers from the cavalry 
and infantry divisions, will be left at the base, forming 
infantry and general depots. 

In other words, the force is thus made up: 



In the field — 

Cavalry 5,534 

Infantry (three divisions) 29,253 

Corp troops 5,122 

Communications 9,397 

49.306 

At the base 2,832 



Total 52,138 



The cavalry division in the field consists of two bri- 
gades, each made up of three regiments (538 each), a 
horse bat-column, bearer company, and field hospital, and 
a field company of engineers will be attached to the di- 
vision. 

Each of the three infantry divisions in the field con- 
sists of two brigades, the brigade establishment being 
four battalions (1,019 each), supply column, bearer com- 
pany, and field hospital ; and to each division, as divisional 
troops, will be attached a cavalry squadron, three field 
batteries of 18 guns, an engineer fieid company, supply 
column, and field hospital." 

The British army has at its command the arsenals of 
the entire Empire, therefore there is no limit to the num- 
ber of guns it can put in the field. 

The Boers are known to have in their equipment (in- 
cluding the armament of the Orange Free State) the 
following, at least: Twenty-six light and heavy Krupp 
guns, four light and two heavy quick-firing guns, one 
rifle muzzle-loading gun, one machine gun, seven 5 cm. 
guns, five Armstrong nine-pounders, two Whitworth six- 



204 



A Few Statistics. 



pounders, one Whitworth three-pounder mountain gun, 
one 3 cm. Krupp gun and three Maxims. It is probable 
that they had more than these, but facts are not at pres- 
ent attainable. 

From this point this work will be a record of the pres- 
ent w r ar. So far we have dealt with the facts of history, 
and now leave it to the reader's individual judgment as 
to who is in the right and who in the wrong. In forming 
a judgment, the palliating facts should be considered on 
both sides. 

The case for the Boers is evidently about as follows: 
They were the first settlers, and without their wish 
their colony was transferred to British rule, their slaves 
freed and inadequate compensation made therefor. They 
gloved to an isolated region to secure independence and 
freedom. The English followed them and forced them 
to go further inland. Their independence was finally 
formally acknowledged — then in a case of necessity Eng- 
land's aid was called in and their country was annexed in 
payment of the promised service. This service was 
tardily rendered, causing much dissatisfaction and a feel- 
ing that they had been tricked. A war for independence 
was fought and won. Later the discovery of gold led to 
a fresh effort to bring them under British rule through 
the extension of the franchise. Demands being made 
upon them which they deemed unjust, and these demands 
being backed up by a strong military demonstration, they 
have taken up arms to save their country. 
The case for the English is as follows : 
They acquired the Cape Colony by diplomatic negotia- 
tions. Finding the Boers a slaveholding people, which 
v as repugnant to their laws, they emancipated the slaves. 
Claiming domain in all the settled land in the Cape re- 
gion, they felt that they had a right to annex all adjacent 
territory, as it became opened to settlement, as a part of 



A Few Statistics, 



205 



their domain which was unclaimed by any other world 
power. 

The original grant of independence to the Boers was to 
their mind a mistake of the party then in control, to be 
remedied by annexation when the opportunity came. The 
disaster of Majuba Hill was not deemed a satisfactory 
test of the power of British arms, as peace was con- 
cluded before reinforcements calculated to be sufficient to 
conquer the Boers had arrived. 

The influx of Englishmen to the gold fields of the 
Rand made it Great Britain's duty to protect her citi- 
zens who were in the Transvaal. Injustice and tyranny 
on the part of the Boers was claimed, and the British 
Government felt it to be better for all concerned to exer- 
cise a controlling influence in Transvaal affairs. Nego- 
tiations having failed, war was considered the necessary 
resort. 

War is a dreadful thing at any time; but especially 
hideous is war between two Christian peoples over mat- 
ters that could certainly have been settled by arbitra- 
tion. The boasted civilization and enlightenment of the 
last end of the nineteenth century has not been able to 
prevent this war. Whichever side may receive our sym- 
pathy, the whole world must regret that such an unneces- 
sary conflict should be waged. 

Let us hope that better councils will prevail, and that 
the nations of the world will step in and demand a cessa- 
tion of hostilities and the submission of the points in 
dispute to international arbitration. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE WAR OF 1899. 

Although President Kruger's ultimatum was not deliv- 
ered until October 10, both England and the Transvaal 
had been making active preparations for war for some 
time previous to that date. 

On September 7 a large consignment of ammunition 
was received at Pretoria by the Boers,- and England or- 
dered 10,000 additional troops dispatched to the Cape and 
Natal from England and India. 

General Sir George White was appointed to command 
of the British forces in Natal on September 10, and sailed 
with his staff and troops on September -16. On the lat- 
ter date troops were also embarked at Calcutta and Bom- 
bay, and the Boers made a forward movement under arms 
to points of vantage. A small-sized riot also occurred 
in Johannesburg on this date. 

More troops were dispatched from England at short 
intervals during September and October. The Boers, on 
the other hand, were by no means idle, having over 20,000 
men in the field ready for action by October 5. 

The ultimatum of October 10 was practically a declara- 
tion of war, as by its terms President Kruger declared 
that he should consider a state of war to exist if the Britr 
ish troops were not withdrawn within forty-eight hours, 
and it was immediately followed by an invasion of the 
British Territories of Natal, Cape Colony, Bechuanaland 
and Rhodesia by the Boers. Mafeking and Kimberley 
were invested. A British force was at each of these 
places, Mafeking being under command of Colonel 



The War of 1899. 



207 



Baden-Powell ; Kimberley under General Kekewich. 
Cecil Rhodes is among the English who are under siege 
at Kimberley. The advance of the Boers into Xatal was 
made along the line of the railroad which connects the 
Transvaal with Durban. Glencoe, Dundee and Lady- 
smith, three points at which British forces were stationed, 
were made the first points of attack. 

The first battle of the war was at Glencoe, on October 
20, when a strong Boer force, under General Meyer, at- 
tacked the British under General Symons. The Boers 
occupied a commanding eminence, and opened fire. The 
British replied in kind, and the Boers were repulsed, giv- 
ing the English the first battle. The Boer loss in this 
engagement is reported at 10 killed and 25 wounded. The 
British 54 killed and 213 wounded. Meanwhile the Boers 
had destroyed a portion of the railroad between Lady- 
smith and Glencoe, and in an effort by the British under 
General Sir George White to restore communication a 
battle occurred on October 21 at Elandslaagte, a point 
midway between Glencoe and Ladysmith, which resulted 
in great loss to both sides, but the British finallv con- 
quered, capturing three hundred prisoners. General 
Yiljoen, one of the bravest of the Boers, was killed at this 
engagement. The British loss at this battle was 42 killed 
and 195 wounded. 

The Boers made another attempt to cut the British line 
at Rietfontein (between Ladysmith and Elandslaagte) on 
October 23, with heavy loss to the English, although the 
Boers were finally forced to abandon their attempt. Brit- 
ish loss 13 killed, 93 wounded. 

On October 26 General Sir William Penn Symons died 
from injuries received at the battle of Glencoe. 

Meanwhile the Boer forces operating in the region of 
Kimberley and Mafeking had not been idle. The invest- 
ment of those points was made nearly complete. In spite 



208 



Tlie War of 1899. 



h by the garrisons in 
f the Boers prevented 
The rail eommuniea- 
r Transvaal forces, and 
ome twenty-five miles 
ible by the Boers, and 
it to prevent the ad- 
of their beleaguered 



A strong British force under Lord Methuen was dis- 
patched to the relief of Kimberly late in November. Lord 
Methuen taking command in the field on November 17*- 
rlis course was much impeded by damage done to the 
/.'---ay by the Eoers. At the Orange River he me: with 
trong opposition, but by the battle of Enslin he was en- 



mace a nne d:spiav ot their hunting 



)n Tuesday. 
.nsre River and 



;ere sent to hold Thomas' farm. 

the Boers from Fincham's Farm 
mce bodv. The British artillerv 



a 



ich the British subsequently o< 
ns in this engagement. The Be 



The battle at Belmont began at daybreak on Thursday. 
Methuen - ' s force numbered 7.000 men : there were but 
5,000 Boers, but they were strongly intrenched on a series 
of hills, their cannon well posted and excellently served. 

'The Boers opened fire on the British advance from the 



The War of 1899. 



209 



hills a thousand yards distant. Other troops were pushed 
up and the engagement became general. 

While the British artillery covered the movement, the 
Guards Brigade moved forward to a hill a few miles east 
of Belmont Station. 

The Scots and Grenadiers crossed the fire zone in the 
face of the enemy and advanced to within fifty yards of 
the hill's base, when the Boers poured in a fire so scathing 
that the Guards were staggered for a moment. Recov- 
ering, the duel continued for half an hour. Then the fire 
of the British artillery grew too fierce for them, the Boers 
evacuated their front position and the Scots Guards, wild- 
ly cheering, rushed the hill with the bayonet. 

The Ninth Brigade, commanded by Colonel Pole- 
Carew, replacing Brig.-Gen. Featherstonhaugh, wounded 
the dav before, then moved forward in extended order, 
and the Boers started a terrible cross-fire from the sur- 
rounding hills. 

The Coldstreams. supported by the Scots, Grenadiers, 
Xorthumberlands and Xorthamptons, stormed the Free 
Staters' second position in the face of a constant and ef- 
fective fire. 

The Ninth Brigade then advanced, the artillery mean- 
time maintaining excellent practice. The British infantry 
never wavered, and when a tremendous cheer notified 
them of the charge, the Boers again retreated, but in 
good order, and gained their third position, a range of 
hills in the rear, in spite of the Lancers 5 flanking move- 
ment. 

The infantry again gallantly faced the fire, and the 
Naval Brigade came into action for the first time, at a 
range of 1.800 yards. The infantry was well supported 
by the artillery, and the Boers were once more forced to 
abandon some minor positions. 



2IO 



The War of 1899. 



Possession was taken of the Boer laager, and the Boer 
stores and ammunition were destroyed. 

The latest obtainable figures place the British loss at 
the battle of Belmont at 105 killed and 374 wounded. A 
costly victory, and one calculated to make the British re- 
alize that the relief of Kimberley was not to be the easy 
task they had contemplated. When Lord Methuen left 
Cape Town be confidently expected to be in Kimberley 
in four days at most. He had not accomplished his task 
when forty days had expired. 

His march northward was resumed, but it was felt that 
there was another battle in prospect before Kimberley 
could be reached. The Modder River bridge was the 
point selected by the Boers to check his advance. They 
had previously destroyed portions of the bridge, breaking 
rail communication. 

On November 28 the army rested five miles from the 
river, and before dawn of the 28th they were on the 
march. Soon after 5 o'clock a. m. the engagement be- 
gan. The Boers were in strong force on both sides of the 
river. 

After an hour and a half of heavy firing, a feint attack 
was made on the Boers' position by a brigade under Gen- 
eral Pole-Carew, to enable another brigade to, if possible, 
capture the bridge. The attacking brigade approached 
within a few feet of the buildings behind which a large 
force of Boers were intrenched. The low walls surround- 
ing these buildings made excellent fortifications, and 
when the Boers opened fire the British were mowed down 
by the dozens and forced to retreat. The British opened 
a heavy artillery fire on the Boer position, but their efforts 
failed to dislodge them. Colonel Stopford, of the Cold- 
stream Guards, was killed in this engagement. 

Meanwhile other portions of the British army were ad- 
vancing along the high railway embankment which led to 



The War of 1899. 



211 



the bridge, under the disastrous fire of the expert marks- 
men in the Boer army, who were concealed in positions 
where they could not be got at. Several attempts were 
made to cross the bridge, and a few of these were suc- 
cessful, but the fire from the Boers was so hot that a re- 
treat to the south side of the river was enforced in every 
case. Many brave men were killed in these sorties. 

The British artillery finally succeeded in disabling the 
Boers sufficiently to enable a part of General Pole- 
Carew's brigade to cross the river late in the afternoon 
and maintain their position. 

The British report their losses in this engagement at 
75 killed and 393 wounded, but revised figures will prob- 
ably show this to be an underestimate. The Boers 5 loss 
was undoubtedly less, as they were but little exposed to 
the fire of the enemy, fighting as they did mainly from 
points of comparative security. 

While the British had crossed the bridge, they were 
for the time being effectively checked. Surrounded on 
all sides by a hostile army, they found themselves practi- 
cally in a trap. The Boers had closed in on their rear, so 
retreat was as dangerous as advance. 

On December 10, Lord Methuen made an effort to ad- 
vance, but was opposed by the enemy in strong force, and, 
after a fierce engagement, was forced to acknowledge de- 
feat and fall back on his camp at Modder River, with a 
loss estimated at 300 killed and wounded, including 
Major-General Wauchope and the Marquis of Win- 
chester. General Methuen has reported his total losses, 
including prisoners captured at this engagement, at 963. 

Up to date (December 25) Lord Methuen's position re- 
mains the same — several skirmishes have taken place, and 
the Boers have massed in force in the rear as well as in the 
front, cutting off his retreat. 

The relief of Kimberley is at least temporarily defeated. 



212 



The War of 1899. 



Lord Methuen's army has been practically defeated, and 
the relief of his forces will probably be the next step to 
be attempted in this direction. 

The British plan of attack involved the movement of 
four bodies of troops, one in the west, under Lord Me- 
thuen, to the relief of Kimberley ; one from Durban to the 
relief of Ladysmith, under the commander-in-chief, Sir 
Redvers Buller ; another from East London northward to 
strike at the Orange Free State, this division being under 
command of General Gatacre. The fourth force, under 
General French, was to advance between the route of 
General Methuen and General Gatacre. 

The British had been hurrying troops to Africa as rap- 
idly as possible, 28,000 landing in the last two weeks of 
October alone. The total men in the British army, either 
in Africa, or under marching orders, was 90,000, a force 
deemed amply sufficient to crush a matter of 30,000 farm- 
ers. It was confidently expected that all four of the di- 
visions mentioned above would make a triumphal ad- 
vance, and be fighting in Transvaal territory by Christ- 
mas at the latest. 

The Boers, however, had chosen in each case strong- 
defensive positions at which to resist the advance of the 
four armies. How well they accomplished it in the case 
of Lord Methuen has been told. 

On December 10 General Gatacre met his Waterloo at 
Stormberg, and the British arms received a crushing de- 
feat that astonished the nation. 

While marching to occupy Stormberg, an important 
junction point near the borders of the Orange Free State, 
a strong force of Boers was unexpectedly encountered, 
and the British were forced to retreat after having lost 
more than six hundred men, most of whom, however, 
were taken prisoners. 

According to the reports, the number of Boers was 



The War of 1899. 213 



2,500. General Gatacre's force numbered probably 4,000 
men all told. He was moving from Molento upon Storm- 
berg, as reports of natives and a few scouts led him to 
believe that the Boer position could be easily surprised. 

The first sign of a battle was a hot, effective fire de- 
livered upon the line of the Dublin Fusiliers, who were 
in advance. It proved so effective that the Irishmen 
sought shelter behind a kopje on the left. They appeared 
well covered for a time, and were followed into shelter by 
the Northumberland Fusiliers and the artillery. 

Scarcely had the last mentioned taken the ground, per- 
haps half a mile from the Boer firing line, when it was 
discovered that the whole force were exposed to the fire 
of their enemies' guns from a hill that enabled the Boers 
to enfilade the British lines. Here a few guns of the 
British artillery saved the situation, for under their rapid 
fire General Gatacre's men were enabled to withdraw in 
good order out of range. 

The action at this time had become general, but all at 
long range. While the entire British line, halted and 
from cover, were attempting to "snipe" the Boers, it was 
learned that a large commando of mounted Boers were 
moving from the north with the intention to cut off the 
entire brigade. 

The Northumberland and Irish regiments started at 
once to engage them, but were promptly checked by a 
heavy fire from machine guns. * 

Then, it appears, the commanding officers decided that 
a complete retreat was necessary, and the return march 
to Molento was begun in good order over the thirteen 
miles of the way. 

Almost to the boundaries of the encampment here the 
Boers kept up a rifle fire upon the retreating lines. 

General Gatacre's defeat aroused the greatest alarm in 
England, but worse was' yet to come. 



214 



The War of 1S99. 



BuIIer, the hero, the invincible — the man who was con- 
fidently expected to crush the Boers in short order — had 
yet to be heard from. 

General Buller was heard from on December 15, and 
the most crushing defeat of the war was the burden of his 
report. This disaster occurred at the Tugela River, at 
Colenso. His advance to this point had been unimpeded. 
His purpose was to push his way across the Tugela River 
by main force, without attempting to gain advantages by 
manoeuvring. He fell into the familiar Boer trap, march- 
ing his men upon a thickly populated nest of concealed 
riflemen, whose deadly fire decimated the British column, 
Killed the horses which dragged their guns, and forced 
the survivors to fall back under a leaden hailstorm. He 
proved his column in full strength at 4 o'clock on the 
morning of the 15th from the camp near Chieveley with 
the purpose of forcing a passage of the Tugela River. 

There are two fordable places in the stream two miles 
apart. The plan was to cross at one or the other of these 
with one brigade supported by a central brigade. Gen- 
eral Hart was to attack the left drift. General Hildyard 
the right road, and General Lyttleton was to take the 
centre and to support either. General Buller's official re- 
port of the fight thus describes what followed : 

"Early in the day I saw that General Hart would not 
be able to force a passage, and I directed him to with- 
draw. He had, however, attacked with great gallantry, 
and his leading battalion, the Connaught Rangers, I fear, 
suffered a great deal. Colonel I. G. Brooke was seriously 
wounded. 

"I then ordered General Hildyard to advance, which 
he did, and his leading regiment, the East Surrey, occu- 
pied Colenso Station and the houses near the bridge. 

"At that moment I heard that the whole artillery I had 
sent to support the attack — the Fourteenth and Sixty- 



The War of 1899. 



215 



sixth Field Batteries, and six naval twelve-pounder quick 
rirers — under Colonel Long had advanced close to the 
river, in Long's desire to be within effective range. It 
proved to be full of the enemy, who suddenly opened a 
galling fire at close range, killing all the horses, and the 
gunners were compelled to stand to their guns. Some of 
the wagon teams got shelter for the troops in a donga, 
and desperate efforts were made to bring out the field 
guns. 

"The fire, however, was too severe, and only two were 
saved by Captain Schofield and some drivers, whose 
names I will furnish. 

"Another most gallant attempt with three teams was 
made by an officer, whose name I will obtain. Of the 
eighteen horses thirteen were killed, and, as several driv- 
ers were wounded, I would not allow another attempt, as 
it seemed that they would be a shell mark, sacrificing life 
to a gallant attempt to force the passage. 

"Unsupported by artillery. I directed the troops to 
withdraw, which they did in good order. 

"Throughout the day a considerable force of the enemy 
was pressing on my right flank, but was kept back by 
mounted men under Lord Dundonald and part of General 
Barton's brigade. The day was intensely hot and most 
trying to the troops, whose conduct was excellent. 

"We have abandoned ten guns and lost by shell fire 
one. The losses in General Hart's brigade are, I fear, 
heavy, although the proportion of severely wounded is, I 
hope, not large. 

"The Fourteenth and Sixty-ninth Field Batteries also 
suffered severe losses. We have retired to our camp at 
Chieveley." 

The official report of British losses at this engagement 
is 1.097. The crushing effect of this news in England 
may be imagined. 



2l6 



The War of 1899. 



Notwithstanding the reverses to the British arms re- 
ported earlier in the week, the people had confidently ex- 
pected that when news should come from Buller's army 
it must be that of a victory. This expectation had been 
made more firm by a knowledge of the importance at this 
juncture of the operations of a successful movement, 
which was considered sufficiently grave to be termed a 
crisis. 

A panic in the London Stock Exchange market, and 
the immediate ordering out of more troops was the direct 
result. 

The British Empire had been fighting a third-rate 
farmer Republic for two months, and the result was a to- 
tal loss officially stated at over 6,000 men, and the defeat 
of three armies. General French, with the fourth army, 
had done nothing beyond participating in a few skirm- 
ishes. 

It was felt that England mu?t summon all her re- 
sources of war to defeat the Boers. Their accurate 
marksmanship and grim determination had proved them 
to be more formidable adversaries than was anticipated. 

Consequently, arrangements were made to call out the 
reserves and to place an immense army in the field. 

Field Marshal General Lord Roberts was ordered to 
take command, and sailed from England on December 
23. General Kitchener, the hero of the Soudan, was also 
ordered to Africa, and an immense number of reinforce- 
ments were ordered to the front. 

This is the situation at the present time. The British 
armies are held at bay at every point by the Boers. Lady- 
smith has not been relieved. Kimberley has not been re- 
lieved. Mafeking has not been relieved. The English 
armies have been unable as yet to enter Boer territory. 

Queen Victoria is said to have been opposed to the 
war. deeming it to be an unjust one. These reverses to 



The War of 1899. 



217 



British arms appear to her as a righteous judgment. On 
the other hand the Boers fight with a rifle in their hands 
and a prayer on their lips. They believe that the Lord is 
with them, and will give them the victory. 

There are many in England who believe that the war 
has been urged and entered into to serve the private ends 
of Cecil Rhodes, and others high in authority who seek 
personal gain from the absorption of the Boer Republic 
into the British Empire. 

At the outbreak of the war President Kruger said : 

"Last Monday the Republic gave England forty-eight 
hours' notice within which to give the Republic assur- 
ance that the present dispute will be settled by arbitration 
or other peaceful means, and troops will be removed from 
the borders (of the Transvaal). 

"This expires at 5 p. m. to-day. The British agent has 
been recalled and war is certain. 

''The Republics are determined that if they must be- 
long to England a price will have to be paid which will 
stagger humanity. Have, however, full faith that the sun 
of liberty shall arise in South Africa as it arose in North 
America." 

The price so far paid certainly has staggered humanity. 
While the British claim their losses to have been about 
six thousand, the Boers declare that they amount to at 
least seventeen thousand. Owing to the difficulty of 
communication and of securing accurate information, it 
is not possible to depend on the reports received regard- 
ing the losses on either side. In fact, no official report 
of the Boer losses have been published. It is fair to as- 
sume, however, that they are far less than those of the 
English, because they have usually fought from ambus- 
cade, while the British have worked in the open. It may 
be urged against the Boers that this is not the most hon- 
orable kind of warfare, but it must be remembered that, 



218 



The War of 1899. 



in the case of a small force fighting against the resources 
of an empire, much can be forgiven. The Boers have 
been accused of disregarding the Red Cross flag and 
the flag of truce. These reports all come from English 
sources, and must be taken with a grain of salt, although 
it is possible that the charges are true. If so, all civilized 
peoples will justly condemn their course. 

An accurate history of a war cannot be written w T hile 
it is in progress. The main facts, as given in this chapter, 
are, however, undisputed. History is being made rapidly 
in South Africa to-day, and when the smoke of the bat- 
tles shall have cleared away, there are brave and intelli- 
gent American newspaper men with both armies who will 
give to the world the full details of this great war. 

Let us hope, for the sake of humanity and civilization, 
that it will be speedily terminated. 

And is it too much to expect that should the greater 
nation prove victorious, she will deal leniently with her 
late antagonists, remembering that however unprogres- 
sive or unjust they may have been in the past, their fight 
has been, to their minds, for the preservation of their 
homes and families, and that in waging this war they have 
done so with the deepest conviction of the justice of their 
cause? And should the smaller nation w T in, let us hope 
they will grant such reasonable concessions as will stamp 
them as a just and progressive people, worthy to a place 
among the enlightened nations of the world. 



THE END. 




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<« i) 



STREET & SMITH, Publishers 

238 William Street, New York 



ADAMS; 0. L. 

Detective's Clew, The. Magnet No. 66. ioc. 

ALLEX, GRANT 

In All Shades. Arrow No. 22. ioc. 

AUGUSTA, CLARA 

Nobody's Daughter Eagle No. 127. ioc. 

BARRETT, FRANK 

Great Hesper, The. Arrow No. 31. ioc. 

BARRIE, J. M. 

Little Minister, The. Eagle No. 96. ioc. 

Also a better edition. (Illustrated), Drama No. 34. 25c. 

Also in cloth. (Six illustrations), 50c. 
BAXTERj YOUNG 

Old Mortality. Magnet No. 103. ioc. 

BELOT, ADOLPHE 

Tragedy of the Rue de la Paix, The. Arrow No. 32. ioc. 

BOIJRGET, PAUL 

Living Lie, A. Arrow No. 8. ioc. 

BULLEX, FRANK T. 

Cruise of the Cachalot Arrow No. 76. ioc. 

BURGESS, NEIL 

County Fair, The. Eagle No. 60. ioc. 

CAFFYN, MANNINGTON, author of "A Yellow Aster." 

Miss Milne and I. Arrow No. 44. ioc. 

CAINE, HALL 

Bondman, The. Arrow No. 73. ioc. 

Shadow of a Crime. Arrow No. 84. ioc. 

She's All the World to Me. Arrow No. 2. ioc. 

CAMERON, MRS. EMILY LOYETT 

Worth Winning. Arrow No. 52. ioc. 

CARTER, NICHOLAS 

Accidental Password. An. Magnet No. 53. ioc. 

American Marquis, The. 7. " 

Among the Counterfeiters. 39. " 

Among the Nihilists. 43. " 

At Odds with Scotland Yard. 49. u 

At Thompson's Ranch. 56. " 

Australian Klondike, A. 8. " 

Bite of an Apple, A, and other Stories. 105, 44 

Caught in the Toils. 14. " 

Chance Discovery, A. IQ. 

Check No. 777. " 46. " 

Clever Celestial, A 44 75- " 

Crescent Brotherhood, The. " 83. " 

Crime of a Countess, The. 5- 

Dead Man's Grip, A. 44 85. 44 

Deposit Vault Puzzle, A. 21. " 

Detective's Pretty Neighbor and Other Stories " 89. i4 

Diamond Mine Case, The. " 7t- " 

(o 2) 



CARTER, MCHOLAS.-Coiithiued. 

Double Shuffle Club, The. Magnet No. 68. 

Evidence by Telephone. " 23. 

Fair Criminal, A. " 62. 

Fighting Against Millions. " 11. 

Found on the Beach. " 65. 

Gambler's Syndicate, The. " 18. 

Gideon Drexel's Millions 11 99. 

Great Enigma, The. " 2. 

Great Money Order Swindle, The. " 91. 

Harrison Keith, Detective u 93. 

Klondike Claim, A. 1. 

Man from India, The. 50. 

Millionaire Partner, A. 59. 

Mysterious Mail Robbery, The. " 13. 

Nick Carter and the Green Goods Man. 14 87. 

Nick Carter's Clever Protege. " 108. 

Old Detective's Pupil, The. 10. 

Piano Box Mystery, The. 17. 

Playing a Bold Game. • 12. 

Puzzle of Five Pistols, The, and Other Stories. " 97. 

Sealed Orders l< 95. 

Sign of the Crossed Knives, The. 11 79. 

Stolen Identity, A. " 9. 

Stolen Pay Train, The, and Other Stories. 11 101. 

Stolen Race Horse, The, and Other Stories. " in. 

Titled Counterfeiter, A. " 3. 

Tracked Across the Atlantic. 4. 

Two Plus Two. " 73. 

Van Alstine Case, The. " 77. 

Wall Street Haul A. " 6. 

Wanted by Two Clients. " 81. 

Woman's Hand, A. " 16. 



10c. 



CHAMPLIN, VIRGIN 
Shadowed by a Detective. 

CHEEVER, MRS. H. 

Brothers, All. 

CLAY, BERTHA M 

Another Man's Wife. 
Another Woman's Husband. 
Between Two Hearts. 
Bitter Bondage, A. 
Fair but Faithless. 
For a Woman's Honor. 
Gipsy's Daughter. The. 
Gladys Greye. 
Heart's Bitterness, A. 
Heart's Idol, A. 
Ideal Love, An. 
In Love's Crucible. 
Marjorie Deane. 

(G 3) 



IA 

Magnet No. 106. 
A. 

Alliance No. 5. 

Eagle No. 48. 
Eagle No. 42. 
Eagle No. 84. 
Eagle No. 130. 
Eagle No. 102. 
Eagle No. 4. 
Eagle No. 11. 
Eagle No. 59. 
Eagle No. 109. 
Eagle No. 21. 
Eagle No. 119 
Eagle No. 70. 
Eagle No, 79. 



ioc. 

IOC 
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IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 



CLAY, BERTHA M. -Continued. 

'Twixt Love and Hate. Eagle No. 05. 10c. 

Violet Lisle. Eagle No. 14. 10c. 

CLEMENS, "WILL 31. 

Life of Admiral Dewey, The. Historical No. 7. ix>c, 

COBB, C. W. 

The Mountaineer Detective. Magnet No. 40. 10c. 

COBB, SYLYAaLS, Jr. 

Ben Hamed. Columbia No. 18. 10c. 

Golden Eagle, The. u 19. 10c. 

King's Talisman, The " 21. 10c. 

Yankee Champion, The. Eagle No. 78. 10c. 

COLLINS, WILKIE 

My Lady's Money. Arrow No. 58. ioe. 

COMFORT, LUCY RANDALL 

Cecile's Marriage. Eagle No. 121. 10c. 

Widowed Bride, The. Eagle No 86. 10c. 

CORELLI, MARIE 
Ardath, Vol. I. Arrow No. 26. 10c. 

• Ardath. Vol. II. " 27. " 

Romance of Two Worlds. A. M 18. " 

Thelma. " 55. " 

Vendetta. 36. 
Wormwood. 47. 

BARRELL CHARLES 
When London Sleeps. Eagle No. 105. 10c. 

BAl DET, ALPHONSE 
Jack. Arrow No. 59. 10c. 

Partners. The. Arrow No. 67. 10c. 

Sappho. Arrow No. 16. 10c. 

BE G0>C0l RT, E. AM) J. 
Germinie Lacerteux. * Arrow No. 4. 10c. 

BEL PIT, ALBERT 
Coralie's Son. Arrow No. 35. 10c. 

DENISON, MRS. MARY A. 
Daughter of the Regiment. The. Eagle No. 116. 10c. 

BE PO>T JEST, RENE. 
No. 13 Rue Marlot Magnet No. 96. 10c. 

BE TISSEAl , LEO> 
His Fatal Vow or Sealed Lips. Arrow No. 23. 10c. 

BEY, MARMABLKE 
Muertalma: or, the Poisoned Pin. Magnet No. 58. 10c. 

DONNELLY, H. OR AT TAN 
Darkest Russia. Eagle No. 94. 10c. 

DOUGLAS, A. M, 
Midnight Marriage, The. Eagle No. 6. 10c. 



DOYLE, A. t'OXAX 

Beyond the City. Arrow No. 6. ioc. 

Firm of Girdlestone, The. Arrow No*. 69. ioc. 

Sherlock Holmes' Detective Stories, The. Magnet No. 72. ioc. 

Sign of the Four. The. Arrow No. 17. ioc. 

Study in Scarlet, A. * Arrow No. 3. ioc. 

White Company, The. Arrow No. 81. ioc. 

* DU BO I SG OBEY, FORTOE 

Blue Veil, The. Magnet No. 44. ioc. 

Chevalier Casse Cou. The. 63. " 

Convict Colonel, The. 33. 
Crime of the Opera House, The. Vol. I. 35. 
Crime of the Opera House, The. Vol. II. " 36. 

His Great Revenge. Vol. I. Magnet No. 54, ioc. 

His Great Revenge. Vol. II. 55. " 

Matapan Affair. The. " 38. " 

Red Camellia, The. " 64. " 

Red Lottery Ticket. The. " 31. " 

Steel Necklace. The. " 27. " 

DUCHESS, THE 

Duchess. The. Arrow No.' 34. ioc. 

Honourable Mrs. Vereker, The. Arrow No. 62. ioc. 

Mildred Trevanion. Arrow No. 40. ioc. 

DUDLEY, BICKNELL 

Gentleman from Gasconv. A. Eagle No. 89. ioc. 

DUFFY, RICHARD 

Saved from the Sea. Eagle No. 118. ioc. 

DUMAS, ALEXANDRE 

Edmond Dantes (Part I, Monte Cristo) Arrow No. 92. ioc. 

Three Musketeers. The. Arrow No. 77. ioc. 

EBERS, GEORGE. 

Egvptian Princess, An. Arrow No. 74. ioc. 

EDWARDS, JULIA 

Beautiful but Poor. Eagle No. 8. ioc. 

Estelle's Millionaire Lover. Eagle No. 27. ioc. 

He Loves Me. Loves Me Not. Eagle No. 3. ioc. 

Little Widow, The. Eagle No. 13. ioc. 

Prettiest of All. Eagle No. 124. ioc. 

Stella Sterling. Easrle No. 62. ioc. 

EDWARDS. WARREN 

Colonel's Wife, The. Eagle No. 39. ioc. 

D'«natch Bearer. The. Eagle No. 56. ioc. 

War Reporter, The. Eagle No. 97. ioc. 

ELLIS, EDWARD 8. 

From Tent to White House Medal No. 11. ioc. 

EVASS, AUGUSTA J. 

Inez. Arrow No. 82. ioc. 

Macaria. Arrow No. 80. ioc. 

FEW, GEORGE MA> TELLE 

Bag of Diamonds. The. Magnet No. -30. ioc. 

(Gr 5) 



46. 

6. 

2. 
10. 
II. 



FEUILLET, OCTAVE 

Romance of a Poor Young Man, The. Arrow No. 

1TJLCH, ENSIGN CLARKE, L. S, X. 

Court Martialled. Columbia No. 
Fighting Squadron, The. 

Gauntlet of Fire, A. u 

Holding the Fort. l > 

Prisoner of Morro, A. Columbia No, 4. 

Saved by the Enemy. 8. 

Soldier Monk, The. 11 17. 

Soldier's Pledge, A. M 12. 

Wolves of the Navy. Columbia No. 13. 

FLEMING, MAT AGNES 
Lady Evelyn. Eagle No. 141. 

Unseen Bridegroom. Eagle No. 136. 

Virginia Heiress, The. Eagle No. 9. 

FRANCILLON, R. E. 
King or Knave. Arrow No. 7. 

GABORIAU, EMILE 
Caught in the Net (Slaves of Paris, Vol. I.) 

Magnet No 

Champdoce Mystery, The (Slaves of Paris, Vol. II.). 

Magnet No 

Clique of Gold, The. Magnet No 

Detective's Dilemma, The (Mons. Lecoq, Vol. I.). 

Magnet No 

Detective's Triumph, The (Mons. Lecoq, Vol. II.). 

Magnet No 

File No. 113. 
Widow Lerouge, The. 

GARVICE 5 CH4JRLES 

Claire. Eagle No 

Elaine. 

Her Heart's Desire. 
Her Ransom. 
Leslie's Loyalty. 
Lorrie; or. Hollow Gold. 
Marauis, The. 
She Loved Him. 
Wasted Love, A. 

GILBERT, W. $. 

Bab Ballads, The. Arrow No. 68. 

GOODE, GEORGE W. 

Post Office Detective, The. Magnet No. 52. 

GRAYDOX, WILLIAM MURRAY. 

Cryptogram, The. Medal No. 26. 

From Lake to Wilderness Medal No. 22. 

White King of Africa, The. " 16. 



22. 
29. 

24. 

25. 
26. 

15. 

98. 

22. 

41. 
50. 
17. 
85. 
73- 
117. 
24. 



IOC. 

IOC. 



IOC, 
IOC. 
IOC. 

IOC. 



20. IOC. 



IOC. 
IOC. 

IOC. 

IOC. 

IOC. 



IOC. 

10c. 

IOC. 
IOC. 
IOC. 
(G 6) 



HAGGARD, H. RIDER 

Allan Quatermain. Arrow No. 33. 10c. 

Eric Brighteyes. 51. 10c. 

Jess. Arrow No. 83. 10c. 

HAHN, CHARLES CURTZ 
Wreck of the South Pole, and Other Tales. 

Columbia No. 22. 10c. 

HALL, A. D. 

Cattle King, The. Eagle No. 112. 10c. 

Cuba: Its Past, Present and Future. Historical No. 1. 10c. 

Devil's Island (The Story of Dreyfus) Eagle No. 125. 10c. 

Fatal Card, The. Eagle No. 16. 10c 

Hawaii. Historical No. 4. 10c. 

Mavourneen. Eagle No. 76. 10c. 

Northern Lights. Eagle No. 123. 10c. 

Philippines, The. Historical No. 2. 10c. 

Pope Leo XIII., A Life of. 44 5. 10c. 

Porto Rico. Historical No. 3. 10c. 

Uncle Sam's Ships, (A History of our Navy) 44 6. 10c. 

Victoria, Queen and Empress 44 9. 10c. 

HANCOCK, HARRIE IRVING 

Blackmail, or a Central Office Mystery. Magnet No. 109. 10c. 

HANSHEW, T. W. 

Queen of Treachery, A. . Eagle No. 93. 10c. 

Wedded Widow, A. Eagle No. 137. 10c. 

HARBAUGH, T. C. 

White Squadron, The. Eagle No. 120. 10c. 

HARBEN, WILL N. 

North Walk Mystery, The. Magnet No. 88. 10c. 

HATTON, JOSEPH 

John Needham's Double. Magnet No. 41. 10c. 

HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL 

House of Seven Gables. Arrow No. 54. 10c. 
HENTY G. A, 

Curse of Carnes' Hold, The. Medal No. 32. 10c. 

Dragon and the Raven, The. Medal No. 23. 10c. 

Jack Archer 44 19. 10c. 

Through the Fray. " 25. 10c. 

True to the Old Flag. 44 29. 10c. 

Young Colonists, The. 44 14. 10c. 

HILL, K. Ft 

Mysterious Case, A. Magnet No. 32. 10c. 

Mystery of a Madstone, The. . . Magnet No. 67 10c. 

Twin Detectives, The. Magnet No. 74. 10c. 

HOLMES, MRS. MARY J. 

English Orphans. Arrow No. 57. 10c. 

Homestead on the Hillside. 44 60. 10c. 

'Lena Riverg. 44 56. 10c. 

Meadowbrook. 44 79. 10c. 

Tempest and Sunshine* * 53. 10c. 

{Qr 7) 



HOLZMEYER, GENIE (Mrs. Sydney Rosenfeld) 

Proud Dishonor, A, Eagle No. 104. ioe, 

HOPE, ANTHONY 

Frivolous Cupid and Other Stories Arrow No, 64. 10c 

HORNUNG, E. W. 

Bride from the Bush, A. Arrow No. 93. 10c. 

HUGO, YICTOR 

Han of Iceland. Arrow No. 19. 10c. 

Hunchback of Notre Dame. Arrow No. 90. 10c. 

Ruy Bias. Arrow No. 37. 10c. 

Toilers of the Sea, The. Arrow No. 30. 10c. 

HUME, FERGUS 

Mystery of a Hansom Cab, The. Magnet No. 47. 10c. 

INGRAHAM, RET. PROF. J. H. 

Prince of the House of David, The. Arrow No. 43. 10c. 

JAMES, POLICE CAPTAIN 

Little Lightning, Magnet No. 70. 10c. 

Revenue Detective, The. Magnet No. 42. 10c. 

JAMES, T. P. 

Under Fire. Eagle No. 75. 10c. 

JONES, EMMA GARRISON 

Wedded for an Hour. Eagle No. 81. 10c. 

KIPLING, RUDYARD 

Ballads and Other Verses. Arrow No. 49. 10c. 

Light That Failed, The. Arrow Xo. i. 10c. 

Phantom Rickshaw, The. Arrow No. 12. loc. 

Plain Tales from the Hills Arrow No. 63. 10c. 

Soldiers Three and Black and White u 65. 10c. 

Under the Deodors and Story of the Gadsbys 44 70. 10c. 

LEON, LEWIS 

Silver Ship. The. Medal No. 18. 10c. 

LIBBEY, LAURA JEAN 

Fatal Wooing, A. Eagle No. 138. 10c. 

LISLE, ANNIE 

Whose Wife Is She? Eagle No. no. 10c. 

LOUNSBERRT, LIEUT. LIONEL 

Cadet Kit Carey. Medal Xo. 2. 10c. 

Captain Carey of the Gallant Seventh. Medal No. 6. 10c. 

Centre Board Jim. Medal No. 27. 10c. 

Ensign Merrill 11 17. 10c. 

Kit Carey's Protege " 8. 10c. 

Lieutenant Carey's Luck. Medal No. 4. 10c. 

Midshipman Merrill '* 15- 10c, 

Won at West Point * si. 10c. 

(G8) 



LLDLLM, JEAN EATE 

That Girl of Johnson's. Eagle No. 140. 10c. 

LYALL* EDNA 

Donovan. Arrow No. 50. 10c. 

Hardy, Norsman A. u 66. ioc. 

In the Golden Days * 4 71. 10c. 

Won by Waiting. 44 45. 10c. 

McEENZIE, DONALD J. 

Face to Face. Magnet No. 76. 10c. 

Past Master of Crime, A. 44 " 104. 10c* 

Under His Thumb. 44 44 28. 10c. 

Workingman Detective, The. 44 44 110, 10c. 

MAITLAND, 0. 

Society Detective, The. Magnet No. 34. 10c. 

MANLEYj MARLINE 

Old Specie. Magnet No. 45. 10c. 

Poker King, The. Magnet No. 80. ioe. 

Vestibule Limited Mystery, The. Magnet No. 57. 10c. 

MARRYAT, CAPTAIN 

Peter Simple. Medal No. 30. 10c. 

3IATTHE3Y, CHARLES 

Inspector's Puzzle, The. Magnet No. 84. 10c 

3IERRICX, DR. MARK 

Great Travers Case, The. Magnet No. 48. 10c. 

ME RIME E ? PROSPER 

Carmen and Colomba, Arrow No. 8g. 10c. 

ME RR 131 AN, HENRY SETON. 

Phantom Future, The Arrow No. 78. 10c. 

Prisoners and Captives. 44 41 85. 10c. 

Suspense. 44 44 88. 10c. 

3IIDDLEMAS, JEAN 

Maddoxes, The. Arrow No. 38. 10c: 

3IILLER, 3IRS. ALEX. 3IcYEIGH 

Crushed Lily, A. Eagle No. 113. 10c. 

Dora Tenney. Eagle No. 64. 10c. 

Lillian, My Lillian. Eagle- No. 106. 10c. 

Little Coquette Bonnie. Eagle No. 43. 10c. 

Little Southern Beauty, A. Eagie No. 25. 10c. 

Pretty Geraldine. Eagle No. 34. 10c. 

Rosamond. Eagle No. 57. 10c. 

Senator's Bride. The. 20. 

Senator's Favorite, The 5. " 

Sweet Violet. Eagle No. oi. 10c. 

3IIL3IAN, HARRY DTJ BOIS 

Mr. Lake of Chicago. Eagle No. 19. 10c. 



MURRAY, DITTO CHRISTIE 

Dangerous Catspaw, A. Arrow No. 20. 10c. 

MURRAY, LIE! TEX AM 

Up the Ladder Medal Xo. 13. ioe. 

NORRIS, W. 1 . 

Chris. Arrow Xo. 29. 10c. 

Rogue, The. Arrow Xo. 9. 10c. 

NORTH, BARCLAY. 

Diamond Button, The Magnet Xo. 100. 10c. 

On the Rack Magnet Xo. go. ioe. 

4> Vivier M of Vivier Longmans & Co., Bankers 11 94. 10c. 

OPTIC, OLIVER 

All Aboard. Medal Xo. 3. 10c. 

Boat Club. The. Medal No. 1. 10c. 

Xow or Never. Medal Xo. 5. 10c. 

Trv Again tl 9. 10c. 

OTIS, JAMES 

Chased Through Xorway. Medal Xo. 7. ioe. 

Wheeling for Fortune ' 4 20. ioe. 

PATTEN, GILBERT 

Boy Boomers, The. Medal Xo. 28. ioe. 

Boy from the West, The Medal Xo. 24. ioe. 

Don Kirk, the Boy Cattle King Medal Xo. 10. 10c. 

Don Kirk's Mine " 12. ioe. 

PECK, PROE. WI. HENRY 

Locksmith of Lyons, The. Eagle X T o. 83. 10c. 

PEMBERTON, MAX 

Iron Pirate. The. Arrow Xo. 48. 10c. 

PHILIPS, E. C. 

As in a Looking Glass. Arrow Xo. 13. 10c. 

Tack and Three Jills. . # Arrow X"o. 14. 10c. 

"Q" (ARTHUR T. OOLLER COrCH 

Dead Man's Rock Arrow Xo. 72. ioe. 

RATHBORSE, ST. GEORGE 

Baron Sam. Eagle No. 30. 10c. 

Captain Tom. " 26. 

Colonel by Brevet, The. Eagle Xo. 47. 10c. 

Dr. Jack. " 15. " 

Also in cloth, Rose Series Xo. 2. 25c 

Dr. Tack's Wife. Eagle Xo. 18. 10c. 

Fair Maid of Fez. The. " 80. " 

Fair Revolutionist. A. Eagle Xo. 115. 10c. 

Girl from Hong Kong, The Eagle Xo. 126. 10c. 

Goddess of Africa, A. E^gle Xo. 101. 10c. 

Great Mogul. The. " 35- 14 

Her Rescue from the Turks. 1 142. 10c. 

Major Matterson of Kentucky. 5S 

Miss Caprice. « 28 ' 

Miss Pauline of Xew York. * 23. ' 

(G10) 



RATHBORNE, ST. GEORGE.— Continued. 

Monsieur Bob. Eagle No. 4a 10c 

Mrs. Bob. 33- " 

Nabob of Singapore, The. 38. 

Son of Mars, A. u 108. " 

Spider's Web, The. " 71. " 

Squire, John. u 134. " 

RICHARDSON, LEANDER P. 

Prairie Detective, The. Magnet No. 37. 10c. 

ROSTAND, EDMOND 

Cyrano de Bergerac. Arrow No. 42. ioc. 

ROWLANDS, EFFIE ADELAIDE 

Carla ; or, Married at Sight. Eagle No. 107. ioc. 

Little Lady Charles. Eagle No. 139. ioc. 

Woman Against Woman. Eagle No. 52. ioc. 

ROILE, EDWIN MILTON 

Captain Impudence. Eagle No. 82. ioc. 

RUSSELL, W. CLARK 
Marriage at Sea, A. Arrow No. 11. ioc. 

SARDOU, YICTORIEN 
Cleopatra. Eagle No. 54. ioc. 

Fedora. " 36. " 

Gismonda. 67. " 

La Tosca. " 61. " 

Theodora. " 29. " 

SAWYER, EUGENE T. 

Los Hnecos Mystery. The. Magnet No. 51. ioc. 

Maltese Cross, The. Magnet No. 61. ioc. 

SCHREINER, OLIVE (RALPH IRON) 
Story of an African Farm, The. Arrow No. 91. ioc. 

SHELDON, MRS. GEORGIE 

Audrey's Recompense. 
Edrie's Legacy. 
Faithful Shirley 
Grazia's Mistake 
Max. 

Queen Bess. 
Ruby's Reward. 
That Dowdy. 
Thrice Wedded. 
Tina. 

Two Keys. 
Virgie's Inheritance. 
Witch Hazel. 



Eagle No. 


99- 


IOC. 


Eagle No. 


12. 


IOC. 


Eagle No. 


in. 


IOC. 


(< 


122. 


IOC. 


u 




IOC. 


Eagle No. 


1. 


IOC. 


Eagle No. 


2. 


IOC. 


Eagle No. 


44- 


IOC. 


Eagle No. 


55- 


IOC. 


Eagle No. 


77. 


IOC. 


Eagle No. 


7- 
88. 


IOC. 


Eagle No. 


66. 


IOC. 



SHELDON, RET. CHARLES M. 

Crucifixion of Robert Strong, The. Alliance No. 3. 10c. 

In His Steps : What Would Jesus Do ? Alliance No. 1. 10c. 
Robert Hardy's Seven Days 4t 2. 10c. 

SHERBURNE, HARRIET 
Wilful Winnie. Eagle No. 72. 10c. 

SMITH, FRANCIS S. 
Alice Blake. Eagle No. 100. 10c. 

Little Sunshine. Eagle No. 10. 10c. 

SOXJTHWORTH, 3IRS. EM3IA D. E. N. 
Ishmael ; or, In the Depths. Arrow No. 86. 10c. 

Self-Raised ; or, From the Depths. u §7. 10c. 

STABLES, GORDON 
Cruise of the Snow Bird. Medal No. 31. 10c. 

STEVENSON* ROBERT LOUIS 
Kidnapped. Arrow No. 15. 10c. 

Master of Ballantrae. Arow No. 5. 10c. 

New Arabian Nights Arrow No. 75. 10c. 

Treasure Island. Arrow No. 24. 10c. 

STIRLING, ADELAIDE 
Nerine's Second Choice. Eagle No. 131. 10c. 

TALMAGE, RET. T. DEWITT 
Crumbs Swept Up. Alliance No. 4. 10c. 

TAYLOR, JUDSON R. 
Brant Adams Magnet No. 86. 10c. 

Bruce Angelo. 14 
Chosen Man, The. Magnel 
Masked Detective, The. 

Swordsman of Warsaw, The. Columbia 
Tom and Jerry. Magnet 
Van the Government Detective " 

TAYLOR, R. M. 
Detective Bob Bridger. Magnet 

THOMPSON, DENMAN 
Old Homestead, The. Eagle 

TRACY, J. PERKINS 

Blockade Runner, The. Eagle 
Heart of Virginia, The. 
Shenandoah. 
Won by the Sword. 

TRAFTON, EDWIN H. 
Cell No. 13. Columbia 
TYLER, ROBERT LEE 

Lawyer Bell from Boston. Eagle 
None but the Brave. " 
Siren's Love, A. 

Yale Man, A. " 



102. 


IOC. 


.78. 


IOC. 


82. 


IOC. 


. 20. 


IOC. 


.98. 


IOC. 


92. 


IOC. 


69. 


IOC. 


53. 


IOC. 


32. 


IOC. 


37- 


(( 


87. 


ti 


65. 


{( 


■ 23. 


IOC. 


63 


IOC. 


49- 




31. 


i< 


45. 


it 


(Ol2) 



URNER, NATHAN J). 

Ingornar. Arrow No. 25. 10c. 

TAN ORDEN, W- H. 

Life of Gen'l U. S. Grant. Historical No. 10. 10c. 

VANE, SUTTON 

Cotton King, The. Eagle No. 74. 10c. 

Humanity. 92. 

In Sight of St. Paul's. . Eagle No. 129. ioe. 

Span of Life, The. Eagle No. 103. 10c. 
VERNE, J I EES 

Around the World in Eighty Days. Arrow No. 21. 10c, 

Hector Servadac. Arrow No. 30. 10c. 

VICTOR, MRS. M. V. 

Off with the Old Love. Eagle No. 46. 10c. 

WARDEN, GERTRUDE 
Whose Was the Crime. Eagle No. 132. ioe. 

WEIR, MARIPOSA 

Chase Around the World, A. Magnet No. 60. 10c. 

WELLS, DOUGLAS 

Charge of the Blockhouse, The Columbia No. 15. 10c. 

Courier to Gomez, A. Columbia No. 3. 10c. 

Fighting Against Odds i 1 16. ioe. 

For Spanish Gold. " g. 

Hero of the Brigade, The. ■ - 14. ioe. 

On the Firing Line. " 7. 

Secret Service Detail, A. " 5. 

Yankee Lieutenant, The. " 1. " 

WERNER, E. 

Price He Paid, The. Eagle No. 51, ioe. 

WEYMAN, STANLEY J, 

House of the Wolf, The. Arrow No. 10. 10c. 

King's Stratagem, The, and Other Stories. Arrow No. 61. 10c. 

WHYTAL, BUSS 
For Fair Virginia. Eagle No. 90. 10c. 

WINFIELD, EDNA 
Little Cuban Rebel, The. Eagle No. 68. roc. 

WIXTHROP B. ESSEX. 
Spain and the Spaniards Historical No. 8. 10c. 

WINTER, JOHN STRANGE 
Beautiful Jim. Arrow No. 41. 10c. 

WOOD. H. E. 

Passenger from Scotland Yard, The. Magnet No. 107. 10c. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Cast Up by the Tide. Eagle No. 135. 10c. 

Half a Truth Eagle No. 114. ioe. 

His Perfect Trust. Eagle No. 60. 10c. 

Scent of the Roses, The. Eagle No. 128. 10c. 

The Stranglers of Paris (from the play). Arrow No. 28. 10c. 

(Gr 13) 




t 



Says Marcus 
Aurelius to Fa- 
bius Coralus: 

" Its a pity we 
couldn't have 
lived in the nine- 
teenth century instead of the first." 

"Why," says Fabius, "we have about 
all that makes life pleasant as it is." 

"Oh, no," replied Marcus. "We are fa- 
vored well, 'tis true; but just compare the 
expense of buying a novel written by hand 
on a papyrus roll with the ten-cent novels of 
Street & Smith, to say nothing of the fact 
that they would be so much handier to carry 
around and easier on the eyes to read." 

"True," said Fabius, "that's where the 
nineteenth century people have got a great 
thing, and they ought to appreciate it. I 
wish I had one of those good novels 
of theirs to read right now." 



A month' y publication devoted to good literature. By' 



Hl^TflRlfini subscription, $!.oo per year! , 

IliO 1 UiUUilL, Entered as second-class matter at New York Post-office. A * 



July, 



■ ' The magazine that gets better every number." 

Ain slee's * 10c. 

Men Like Ainslee's 

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"Ten Tears Trial; 



General King's 
Greatest Novel 

A Story of the U.S. Army 
and of the Philippines, 

Begins in 

December Ainslee's 

Also : Five Splendid 
Short Stories ; many 
Articles, Poems and 
Pictures. 




10c. 



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NEW YORK 



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